The Cat Who Saw Red Cat Who... :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Koko Discovers Caviar

2005-04-15
Poor old Jim Qwilleran, everywhere he goes people are drinking in front of this recovering alcoholic. To make matters worse, early in this book his doctor puts him on a strict diet just before he gets assigned to cover the gourmet scene for the Daily Fluxion. Just as he really begins to feel sorry for himself he runs into an old flame at a party he is attending that is on his new beat. The party and the old flame are at the Maus House, something of a boarding house for the gourmet set. Since the house was built as an artist's conclave and must remain so to some extent, the new owner has kept the pottery going and brought in Joy Graham and her husband to run it. Joy is the reporter's old flame and his perspective brightens as soon as he sees her.

Soon however Joy disappears and her husband Dan claims she has left him and gone to Florida. Except for the fact that Joy had just told Qwilleran that she hates Florida the story is plausible enough but something just doesn't ring true to the ace reporter and he starts sniffing around. Soon there is another disappearance but no one takes Qwilleran's suspicions seriously and this book ends up reading like the disaster movies of the 1970's. The hero knows the dam is about to break but nobody will listen so he spends the entire movie trying to prove his point until the dam does break and everybody drowns. There are indeed a couple of drowning victims in this story but they may or may not have any connection to the mystery at hand.

The solution to the mystery becomes apparent early but Qwilleran, despite his suspicions, can't prove a thing. Again Koko rises to the occasion, this time on a typewriter and Yum Yum makes the collar. One sometimes wonders if these cats need Qwilleran for anything beyond food and water. You can also rest assured that these cats, unlike their human, will never swallow red herrings.

As is the norm for Lilian Jackson Braun's books, the characters and their often-odd behavior are the bread and butter of the story. And speaking of odd, I am happy to report that photographer Odd Bunsen makes a return in this book after being absent from the previous story. For a free meal Bunsen will help Qwilleran with almost anything and just like the rest of Jackson's characters and this book, Bunsen is witty, engaging and sometimes a little devious.

The Best Braun has to Offer

2005-02-18
"The Cat Who Saw Red" was my introduction to the "Cat Who" series way back when I was about 10 years old. To this day, I have no idea how that book ended up on my mother's shelf - my parents are not readers. But I'm sure glad it did - I've read every book in the series since!

Braun's work has been highly criticized lately for going drastically downhill, and I agree. That criticism is justified. To read "The Cat Who Saw Red" again reminds me of exactly from what great heights Braun has fallen.

The mystery, as others have said, is not that hard to figure out. But the characters are so rich, the writing so fluid, and the situation so compelling that one cannot put this book down. The way Jim Qwilleran interacts with those around him is just fabulous in this book. Unlike later "Cat Who" novels, he doesn't take himself seriously at all - and he can also be heartbreakingly vulnerable. Qwill's buddy Arch Riker is a treat in this book, too, witty and cranky at the same time.

I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the series, or as a re-read for longtime fans.

The Cat Who Saw Red

2005-01-17
This is my favorite Cat Who... mystery so far. Qwilleran, the newspaper man and his cats Koko and Yum-Yum solve another murder mystery. The setting takes place at the Maus Haus, the vintage apartment home where Qwilleran now lives. All types of odd characters live there, including Dan and Joy Graham. They are artists who make pottery by hand.

Qwilleran knew Joy from along time ago. They grew up together and were boyfriend and girlfriend. One night, after Qwilleran moved into the Maus House, Joy came to visit and told him of her miserable marriage. She wanted to leave her husband. That same night, she disappeared. Qwilleran did not believe the story about her moving to Miami. He did not trust her unsophisticated husband, Dan Graham. Qwilleran would not give up until he solved the mystery! Koko and Yum-Yum help to unravel the clues.

Best of the early cat who books

2004-05-04
The early "Cat Who" books have Jim Qwilleran as a middle-aged, impoverished, recovering alcoholic journalist barely hanging on at a newspaper in an un-named Middle West city. Later he moves north 400 miles to a little town and inherits a fortune. "The Cat Who Saw Red" is the last mystery novel that ties him to the gritty city, and it is the best of the city books--by a considerable margin.

Other readers have outlined and commented on the plot, so I will say only about it that the plot here is much better than in the previous city novels. It moves better and the outcome is more logical, more satisfying. But the author's forte is not plotting. It is in the remarkable characters, unusual without being grotesque (a fine line to walk), not the least of whom are Qwill's Siamese cats. To those who have read none of the series, it may sound just a little too cutesy, having prescient cats solve crimes, but the writer makes it work and work quite well.

The writer also excels in creating atmosphere, the city, the newspaper office, fancy and not so fancy restaurants and Maus Haus, a rather weird boarding house for people interested in food--and in pottery.

Like Dickens, Ms. Braun invents no astonishing plots. Her great strength is in making characters come to life in interesting settings. As in Dickens, characters and settings are sufficient.

Nominated for a Edgar 2004-03-25
This 4th book of the series, I understand, was nominated for an Edgar (as in Edgar Allen Poe), which is the mystery series equivalent of an Oscar. It deserves such recognition. First, it brought L.J.B. back after a long break from writing (for which fans are forever grateful). Second, it is a truly remarkable crime, probably one of the most unusual ones I've heard about apart from the C.S.I. television series. I still get chills thinking about that crime (I should stress it is not gory, unlike C.S.I., though it may be the "darkest" story in this mystery series)

This book does a fine job of fleshing out its primary characters and their current assignment: a curious neighborhood of artists. I was particularly delighted with the descriptions of the cats, so vivid as to create a vicarious cat lover experience for me(I'm allergic to cats, so the printed word is all I can handle). Of course, Koko, the Siamese cat with unusual abilities, steals the show.

If you are new to the "Cat Who..." series, this is an excellent starting point. The whole series is one big "can't put it down" pleasure read. Please keep in mind that the entire series is forever evolving, which in some ways is just like real life (and unlike some mystery series where everything resets between stories). So what you read in this book will have remarkable contrasts to books before and much later in the series, though the core elements remain in tact. The series of books divides into two time periods in the protagonist's life: Qwilleran as a reporter in the Big Cities, and later Qwilleran as a columnist in Moose County. The first group is urban, slightly gritty and darker in some ways, the second group is still edgy at times, but is more small-town cozy and much quirkier, in a hometown fashion, which really appeals to the fans. The dividing point for the series is the book "The Cat Who Played Brahms", which is therefore another good starting point. This one, "The Cat Who Saw Red" is in the first group.

In which Qwill, Koko, and Yum Yum. . . 2004-02-10
Something is amiss at Maus Haus. Not just the mystery of an unsolved "suicide" which hangs over the old mansion, but something ominous in the present-day residence. When Qwilleran moves in to work on his new gastronomical assignment, strange things begin to happen. First it's a scream in the night, then a vanishing houseboy. But when his old girlfriend disappears, something has to be done. Qwilleran, Koko and Yum Yum set out to solve the mystery--and find a murderer!

Another mystery for Qwill and Koko 2004-01-04
The story opens with Qwill, a feature reporter for the Daily Fluxion, once again facing a new assignment and seeking a new residence for himself and his cats. Instead of getting assigned to the crime reporting that he would prefer Qwill finds himself assigned to features on the food scene. This would not be too bad if Qwill had not just been put a diet by his doctor. His editor insists so once again Qwill tackles another area. Soon Qwill finds himself immersed in another facet of society in the big city and again he and his cats move into the middle of it, this time taking up residence in the Maus Haus, a boarding house filled with artists who all have a connection with food.

Among his neighbors Qwill is delighted to find his former sweetheart, Joy, who is now married (unhappily). Qwill begins to become involved in Joy's life again only to see her once again abruptly disappear. As time goes by Qwill becomes more and more suspicious of this and other goings on at the Maus House. Ultimately he and the cats solve the mysteries, although not happily.

For those unfamiliar with the series this book could be enjoyed by itself, for those who are fans of the later books be aware that the setting is not Moose County but covers an earlier part of Qwill's life. One of the most notable aspects of this story is the introduction of Hixie Rice who will later relocate to Moose County. For fans of the eariler books Odd Bunsen, Mary Duckworth and Robert Maus all return from eariler books.

A comfortable read for LJB fans. 2003-07-07
My mom loves these books! She gave me this one because she thought I'd love them too. I did enjoy reading it a great deal, but it was a bit bland for me. I don't say that because Lilian Jackson Braun is a poor writer...she's fantastic. Her characters are adorable, loveable and genuine. The setting is creative and chilling. Even the plot is intriguing. When I read, I like my emotions to be stirred a bit more than this book did.
I admit this is the first I've read in the series, and I understand that may contribute to the distaste I have for it, since its actually not the first book of the series. Conflicting reviewers say its the fourth, fifth or sixth book. To really know I think I better check out her website. Those editorial reviews might be more helpful too!
Okay, so what is likeable about this book? Simply put, the characters make the whole series popular. Qwilleran, a reporter with a funny name, is the man who drives the need to know for each case. I like Qwill because he shares many similarities with me. He writes and I've always fancied myself as a reporter. He loves cats; hard not to for me. He also observes people. In this book, Qwilleran reunites with an old flame and finds himself seething at his discovery of her demise.
The other two participants in Braun's whimsical mystery are Koko and Yum Yum. These cats are as personified as Qwill himself and take as much part in the action of the story as others do. One of them even saves Qwill's life in a round-a-bout way. Anybody who loves cats is going to fall hard for these two adorable sidekicks.
Best of all is Braun's affectionate style. She demands nothing more from the reader than a liesurely audience. I like her attention to details affectionate descriptions and penchant for ordinary experiences in extraordinary ways. I also like that she uses interesting facts and victuals of knowledge to satiate the readers cravings for intellectual stimulation.
On the down side, I think I want more emotional or spiritual stimulation from my readings. I tend to cling to books with strong ties to emotional highs and lows. Though this book provided the opportunity for that (especially when Qwill's crush becomes one of the victims), I didn't feel the same excitement I have felt reading other books.
I'm not putting this book down though. I enjoyed it enough to keep it and share with others. My students will also enjoy it's characters. I plan to do a book talk with it for my students at a middle school. I don't really suspect them to read it, but it will make a nice diversion from the ordinary and will introduce them to a great popular contemporary author.

Expect to get hungry 2003-05-31
After a hiatus of nearly 20 years since _The Cat Who Turned On and Off_ (1968 to 1986), Qwilleran and his feline supervisors Koko and Yum Yum, returned in this book, picking up nearly where they left off. Qwilleran is still forty-something, and the only way in which he's beginning to feel his age, barring the recent addition of reading glasses, came courtesy of his doctor after an energetic visit to the vet. (The cats feel that examining their teeth is an outrageous invasion of privacy.) His vet-recommended physical resulted in the incredible document he's reading in the Press Club as the story opens: NO FRIED FOODS - NO CREAM SOUPS...(It's hilarious to listen to George Guidall narrating as Qwilleran, reading this to himself as his oblivious colleagues quite innocently order a lunch containing nothing but no-nos, to be topped by Qwill ordering cottage cheese and half a radish.)

The universe seems to be conspiring to lure Qwill off his diet: that same day, "Percy" (the managing editor who says 'per se' a lot) gives him the latest of a long string of dubious assignments: restaurant critic, expert on food and wine. (Qwill, of course, was established from his first appearance as a recovering alcoholic who never drinks anything stronger than nutmeg-laced ginger ale.) This leads into the typical pattern of the first four Qwill/Koko adventures: Percy assigns the ex-crime reporter yet another feature rather than City Room beat; the perennial tenant Qwill locates the latest of a series of apartments through contacts on his new beat; and he meets the quirky denizens of his beat before crime strikes (not always murder). Braun begins playing with that formula in this book, as an old flame of Qwill's - now unhappily married - lives in Maus Haus, his new building. (The series took a different tack starting with the next book, _The Cat Who Played Brahms_, introducing Qwill to Moose County.)

Maus Haus belongs to the attorney Robert Maus, whose true passion is gourmet cooking. He inherited the place under the terms of a will specifying that it be used to support the arts, having once been the site of an art colony. (The art colony, established by the late owner of _The Morning Rampage_, the town's rival newspaper, dissolved after two artists died mysteriously - the building's physical setting by the river gradually builds up a creepy atmosphere, as images of water and drowning seep into the story.) Maus runs it as a boarding house with a tenant list qualifying as artists - stretching a point to consider cookery an art as well as the pottery practiced by Qwill's former fiancee Joy Wheatley Graham and her disagreeable husband Dan Graham. Notice the food motif running through the names of the tenants: Hixie Rice, a food writer; crossword addict Charlotte Roop, who works for the Heavenly Hash fast-food chain; Rosemary Whiting, the best possible advertisement for her health-food shop; Max Sorrel, whose pride and joy, the exclusive Golden Lamb Chop, has been targeted by a smear campaign that's driving him out of business.

Even without a mystery, this could have been developed as a good character-driven novel, explaining among other things Qwill's taste in women (he realizes that most of his girlfriends, and his ex-wife, looked like Joy), and laying a foundation for a gradual shift in his taste from this point to older women. Having last seen her as a young woman, before she broke their engagement and fled Chicago to find herself, Qwill naturally remembers her as she was, which colors his view of the real Joy today - and he never really got her out of his system.

Joy, for her part, is still something of a free spirit who can't bear confinement - but she's also, in middle age, admitting that she wants comforts: to exploit the new glazes she's invented rather than spending most of her efforts trying (and failing) to avoid bruising her husband's ego, for one. (Also a potter, Dan lost part of a thumb long before the story opens - limiting the kind and quality of the work he can produce - but he insists on saying of things Joy does, 'that's nothing' and producing loud spiels of his own past glories.) Joy confides to Qwill that she hasn't got the money for a divorce - she's paying a price for trusting Dan's handling of their joint financial arrangements earlier in their marriage - and that she's planning on selling some interesting papers she found while exploring the building (implication is that they involve the old drowning scandal, but she doesn't actually say so). Qwill doesn't want to think of Joy as a blackmailer - and offers her a $750 loan, not telling her that he can just barely afford it. Joy seems genuinely surprised, and signs a note without being asked in her atrocious handwriting.

As a recovering alcoholic, Qwill's own finances have only of late years reached an even keel - the money, most of his savings, is the last of a prize he won in a _Fluxion_ writing contest, and losing it would clean him out again. So when Joy disappears again as she did in Qwill's youth, his other childhood friend Arch Riker is the first to say: stop payment on the check, Qwill! But he doesn't want to leave her stuck somewhere without resources, even when the question becomes, has he been had for a sucker? Where did she go - and with whom?

NOTE: George Guidall's unabridged audio recording is, as always, excellent, covering the range from Koko and Yum-Yum's yowls and other Siamese commentary to Qwill's pleasant, deep voice to Dan Graham's hokey cliche-ridden speech (although like the author, Guidall slows down and clarifies Dan's rapid-fire mumble after a few initial samples so that we can follow it more easily).

Good storytelling again. 2003-02-17
This is the fourth in the Cat Who Series; we were introduced to Jim Qwilleran--the only reformed alcoholic of the twentieth century who could be featured in a book without having that part of his history be the maudlin main event--in The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, the book in which he met and then adopted his famous cat, Koko. As a man who works doing a job he doesn't really love because he must pay the bills, and who seems to be able to balance his work and outside life in spite of his divorce and occasional girl-friends, Qwill is a likeable character with a bit of this-could-be-for-real that keeps the stories interesting.
In this fourth book he lands in an improbable living situation, a boarding house for people interested in art run by a gourmet attorney who also cooks for them, and somehow the author manages, with the help of the big city atmosphere and the odd assortment of "characters" whom Qwill must deal in his work life, to make this improbable situation sound actually possible. Incredible bit of story telling, to me. Then we are introduced to several other incredibly improbable situations in perfectly credible ways, and before it was over I actually was interested in the outcome.
The reading is quick and easy, hypnotic, almost; I resented the telephone's interruption. My grandmother used to say a good story well told could transport you away just like a vacation; reading this book is like taking one of those little vacations.