I love Midnight Louie, former ally cat, now well-cared for hero, of Carole Nelson Douglas' mystery series. In this sequential series that we can follow alphabetically, not only do the four main characters mature and grow in interesting relationships to each other, but they do so while thrown into the artfully described, out of the ordinary world of Los Vegas, the backstage for settings that focus on different worlds of working people, youth, thirties, and elders.

Of course these different worlds always manage to unexpectedly contain a murder, but nothing to fear: Midnight Louie has his own friends and relatives that he re-encounters in his travels.

Cajoled by charm, wits and loyalty into participating with him, his assorted crew helps Louie take care of his crime-solving owner, the feisty and curious Temple Barr PR. (Independent Louie does not call her his "owner" but his "associate".) In chapters written by him, Louie shows uses a wonderful human-observing perspective and shows how the underestimated animals bring natural curiosity and behavior, to unravel clues that solve the case, keeping his associate safe.

My own cat, Christopher Bigfoot, unimpaired by one non-functional eye from an infant injury, carefully reads each new volume when I leave it behind as I go off to work. Hopefully he is learning various strategies to add to his current assortment, to take care of me.

-- Cassie Quinlan lives in Concord, Mass.