Sat 15 May 2021
An Archived Mystery Review: LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN – The Cat Who Lived High.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN – The Cat Who Lived High. Jim Qwilleran #11. Putnam, hardcover, 1990. Jove, paperback, 1991.
For the first two-thirds of this book I thought that this review I was going to write would be positive if not an out-and-out recommendation. Former reporter Jim Qwilleran and his two live-in feline companions, Yum Yum and Koko, have temporarily abandoned their home in Pickax City, up north in Moose County, and have headed for the dangerous wilds of Down Below (for which I have always assumed you could substitute the city of Detroit.)
Qwilleran has been asked to use some of his new fortune (tied up with the Klingenshoen Fund) to renovate a classic old apartment building,once the home of the rich and famous, but now on the verge of immediate takeover and conversion to new office towers and condos. And to investigate the building’s worthiness, he decided to take the penthouse accommodations for the winter.
In spite of the many free-spirits still living there, not surprisingly the Casablanca turns out to be a sad picture of urban decay. Yum Yum in particular does not take well to her new surroundings, and Koko’s nose for dirty work soon uncovers the fact that a notorious murder-suicide took place in the very apartment Qwilleran in now staying.
If Braun’s goal had been to write a humorous book about cats and life in the big city (which in part she has), the book would be a resounding success. It’s the unraveling of the mystery which, well, unravels. When the mystery finally (of necessity) takes center stage, you the reader are forced to realize that solving a murder by intuition (masculine as well as feline), ouija boards, and just plain good wishes is something that simply can’t be done, or at least not well.
In other words, the last third of the book self-destructs. I can’t think of a better word to describe it. The mystery is wound up so fast that (as far as I can tell) any thread of plot that is finally tied together is purely accidental. On his part, Qwilleran is totally content to head back to Pickax City. In a way, I don’t blame him. On the other hand, he certainly seems to leave a mess behind.
May 15th, 2021 at 11:10 pm
I love cats and I know these books have millions of devoted fans, but a mess left behind is how I feel about just about every book in this series.
If you found Mr.and Mrs. North’s cat Martini annoying Yum Yum and Koko could drive you to suicide, if not homicide.
More power to them and to Braun, but even one of these is one too many for me.
May 16th, 2021 at 12:39 am
Braun’s books have an appeal that escapes both of us, David, but my mother had a collection of all of them, and she loved every one.
May 15th, 2021 at 11:29 pm
Lilian Jackson Braun, Harry Kemelman (‘Rabbi’ series) and also the ‘Fletch’ series …all fall into the same category for me. I appreciate their very facile writing technique; no slur on their competency …but the subject matter and style made me lukewarm to seek out the other titles. I think what they achieved was all very fine, in its way. Just, not suited to my own taste. One series I did like was the ‘Moses Wine’ stories and I was also flabbergasted by George RR Martin’s “Armageddon Rag”. Now that was a romp, with a real punch-in-the-gut.
May 16th, 2021 at 12:40 am
I surely do not get the connection, Lazy.
May 16th, 2021 at 7:16 am
If I may quote the late, great Ellen Nehr: “I hate to mention this, but I’m getting pretty darn sick of cutesy cats all over the place. One cat per book is enough; but CATS DON’T TALK, CATS DON’T THINK, and CATS DON’T DETECT!”
The Apron String Affair #81
May 16th, 2021 at 12:02 pm
I miss Ellen!
May 16th, 2021 at 4:18 pm
The “Cat Who” stories are the quintessential cozy mysteries — laid back characters, lots of local color, smoozing, and a dolt of the supernatural (the cats psychic powers). The mysteries were an excuse to revisit these friends. Clearly they were not for everyone.
May 16th, 2021 at 4:32 pm
A five line comment that summarizes the series perfectly. Thanks, Brian!
May 16th, 2021 at 6:53 pm
I love THAT DARN CAT and its sequel, but in it the cat behaves like a cat and the humor arrises from fairly normal feline behaviors interpreted by humans.
It isn’t the cozy that bothers me or really the cats, I have no problem with the North’s pets as some critics did, but for me Braun is too cutesy by half and the mystery element cutesy as well, a problem I have with much of the cozy industry.
But as Beb says, more power to her and her audience. I just wish cozy hadn’t driven almost everything else off the shelves, and I am being consistent because when private eyes were driving everything else off the shelf I complained that wasn’t good for the genre either no matter how many books they sold and before that Gothics.
But Cozies are particularly popular with women readers and women readers buy more books than men and particularly in series they like. I don’t see much chance of change in the short run with Cozies and Romantic Suspense likely to dominate the genre for the forseeable future.
May 16th, 2021 at 8:10 pm
I’ve read or listened over 20 of the 29 books in the series. The earlier ones were much better than the later ones. In terms of mystery, however, there’s not much there. Having no mystery, or mysteries solved by accident, becomes annoying the more it is repeated. I enjoyed the characters, and much preferred the audiobook versions to the novel versions, as you could just sit there and listen and not think, particularly on long drives.