CAT IN A WHITE TIE AND TAILS

Midnight Louie, Las Vegas’ toughest, shortest, darkest detective, is kidnapped, or catnapped, during a trip to Chicago.

Louie, who shares an apartment with PR person Temple Barr, accompanies her and her fiance, radio advice star Matt Devine, on a trip to meet his dysfunctional family. How dysfunctional? Well, Matt’s trying to promote his mother’s marriage to the brother of his real father, another scion of a wealthy Chicago family. Abducted by thugs trying to get something Matt’s creepy deceased stepfather may have left with his mother, the resourceful feline escapes with the help of some local talent. Back in Vegas, Temple’s former squeeze, ex-magician Max Kinsella, whom she thought had died in a magic trick gone wrong, has been hired by tough homicide lieutenant C.R. Molina to investigate a string of unsolved murders. Max, who’s lost his memory and his father figure in a series of wild escapades in Europe involving the Irish Republican Army, is getting help from Rafi Nadir, Molina’s former boyfriend and the father of her child, as he infiltrates what’s left of the mysterious group of magicians known as the Synth. Even the stone-cold killer Kitty the Cutter may have returned from the dead to involve herself in their affairs. Louie and his partner in crime Midnight Louise must enlist many of their feline pals to keep track of all the possible killers if he’s to protect Temple, Matt and Max.

Louie’s 23rd (Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta, 2011, etc.) brings together many of the characters beloved by loyal fans, along with enough loose threads to knit a sizable blanket. Will they all be tied up when Douglas reaches the end of the series?