Cat Catcher by Caroline Shaw

Cat Catcher
by Caroline Shaw
Pages: 330
Date: February 24 2000 (originally 1999)
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
Series: Lenny Aaron (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.40 out of 5.0
Read: April 19 to 22 2016

‘Cat Catcher’ is my first book by this author.

As I mentioned in my last review, the one for ‘Slingshot’ by Carsen Taite, I’d accidentally left ‘Cat Catcher’ at home one day and had to find something else to read. Which I mention because I then accidentally read another lesbian mystery book. Instead of doing the smart thing and reading something else, like, say, a nonfiction book.

I mention all that because there are similarities between the two situations in the two different books written roughly 13 years apart that will make writing a review more difficult than it should have been. In short – two young women who work in non-traditional areas of private investigation, with L first names, both ex-cops who left the police force after incidents that caused them injury, and when both found police work just too tough, and . . . um, I believe there were other similarities but I forget them now. Just recalled another similarity – both have addictions – Luca to gambling, Lenny to pain killers.

Characters
Helena ‘Lenny’ Aaron: Lenny is 27 and is an ex-cop. The story of why she is an ex-cop unfolds in little snippets throughout the book. Important as that story is to the development of Lenny’s character, it all boils down to: she was on a case to catch someone of some prominence. They couldn’t get him for the illegal crimes he committed (drugs? I forget now), so they were going to get him for tax fraud. They found evidence. People died. Lenny got viciously injured, and lost her nerve. And now she works as a cat detective, sees a shrink weekly (I rather dislike that psychologist, several reasons, but the most important one is one he even admitted – he just says things just to get rid of his patients), and is addicted to pain killers.

Plot/Mystery
Throughout the book, Lenny hunts down various missing cats. Some she finds dead, some alive. Oh, and that’s something I was going to mention – for a book about someone who hunts cats, there sure were a lot of dead cats in this book. Right. Plot/mystery.

A Kimberly Talbot contacts Lenny. Lenny ducks her twice, but eventually Kimberly forces herself inside Lenny’s office. I pause for a moment – Lenny sure is judgmental, throughout the book Lenny makes disparaging remarks about almost everyone she encounters – Kimberly has great legs, great breasts, and horrible bull-dog face, therefore she’s ugly.

Right. Kimberly wants her missing cat found. Oh, and her mother has received some horrible letters threatening to kill her (the mother). Lenny notes that she doesn’t do that kind of investigation, though she’ll look for the cat.

One thing leads to another, and Lenny does in fact do that kind of investigation – she ends up living in the Talbot home to look for the cat, and while there, investigate the threatening letters.

The investigation and mystery are all rather well done.

Romance
There’s something of a lovely romance in this book. Between Lenny and Cleo. They go from being bitchy towards each other, to trying to dump each other, to a growing attachment. Quite nice. *nods*. That relationship between Lenny and Cleo. I might or might not have mentioned this point yet, but Cleo is a Siamese kitty cat.

Oh, between Lenny and other humans? Well, she does have flirtations with a man (the next door porn shop owner – more that man wishing to be with Lenny, and Lenny wishing that man would leave her alone), and several women (both Vivien Talbot and Kimberly Talbot); but flirtations are all that occurs.

Overall
I do not know Australian noir. I’ve seen one or two films that may or may not be in that genre, and are from Australia, but otherwise I do not know Australia’s version of that noir genre. I say this because this book stresses that it is noir. It even has Noir written on the book’s spine.

I’ve a certain awareness of American noir. Having read several of the popular books of the genre, by such authors as Dashiell Hammett (The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon), Mickey Spillane, and Raymond Chandler. They involve grim private dicks. Who have addictions, mostly to drink and to women. And dames in specific type of dresses. And everyone carries guns all the time. And smoking, lots of smoking. And the lead character, who is a private dick, has a kind of grim depressing view of the world around him (yes, almost always him).

Well, if I was going to label this book a cozy mystery, of which I’ve read a fair number, or a noir, I’d probably lean towards noir. Even with a private dick who hunts cats for a living. Way too much violence, addition, depressing thoughts, and the rest for this to be a cozy.

I do not wish to give a wrong impression here – I rather enjoyed the book. Lenny is somewhat hard to take, but overall an enjoyable experience had by me. Unfortunate that there are only two books in the series, and something like only 8 or so people have read them.

Pressed, I’d probably give the book a rating of roughly 4.35 to 4.45 stars.

April 22, 2016