Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in A Hot Pink Pursuit

Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in A Hot Pink Pursuit - In Las Vegas, anything goes and usually does. A new reality show is coming to town: Teen Idol, a program that involves teens competing in two age groups to become queens of their respective divisions can be picked. Unknown to Lieutenant Carmen Molina of the Las Vegas Police Department, her daughter Mariah entered the teen competition and made the cut. Molina reluctantly allows her daughter to go for the two weeks in house event but worries because someone is mutilating the advertising posters and a girl was killed on the site where the audition occurred.

Molina asks Temple Barr to go undercover and enter the contest as a teen so she can watch over Mariah; she agrees because Max is nowhere around and hasn't been in quite some time. Her friend Matt is in Chicago looking for some clue that will lead him to the identity of his biological father. A series of mischievous threats culminates in the murder of the contest's dietician. Temple, with the help of her feline companion Midnight Louis, investigates to stop the killer from murdering others.

Carole Nelson Douglas always keeps her series fresh by taking her characters in different directions and CAT IN A HOT PINK PURSUIT is no exception. For long time fans, secrets are finally revealed and the heroine makes a life altering decision. The story is told in the third person point of view except when Midnight Louis is on stage and he gives his firsthand perspective. This writing technique is deftly handled by Ms. Douglas so that this charming and entertaining mystery is a must-read for people who like creative and riveting amateur sleuth tales told mostly by one with a tail.

Forge, May 2005, $24.95, 384 pp.

ISBN 0765313995

Harriet Klausner