[.ca] Cat Who Ate Danish Modern (ISBN 0747250359)

Great bed-time mystery...:
This is a pleasant, well-written book that is interesting enough to keep you reading without being such a pageturner that you're up all night finishing it. It reads quickly because of the writing style and the characters are engaging and interesting -- particularly the cats, KoKo and YumYum. Given how long ago this book was written (it's the second in a long series), it has held up very well. The "detective" is newspaper journalist Qwilleran, who has been given the unwelcome task of editing a weekly "magazine" section centered around interior design and showcase homes. Through this, he enters the world of interior designers and some of their wealthy customers. The day after the first issue of the magazine hits the stands, the homeowner whose home was featured is burglarized, losing a very valuable jade collection and a wife. Each attempt to photograph a designer home seems to be equally jinxed, and Qwilleran decides he must solve the first burglary to save the magazine (he has decided he likes his new assignment). With the help of his astonishingly intelligent Siamese cat Ko-Ko, he eventually solves all of the crimes that have taken place in the homes he has showcased in his magazine. The elapse of thirty plus years since this book was first published have made this book seem perhaps like a little time capsule of life in the late 60s, and there is a certain leisureliness and gentleness about the book. This is not a suspense thriller, and I didn't finding myself caring all that much who did it, but rather enjoyed spending time with Qwilleran, his cats, and his friends.

When Qwill and Koko met Yum-Yum:
As the second book of this popular series opens Qwill is trying to work up the nerve to ask for a different writing assignment. The former crime reporter has spent the past six months, since The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, covering the art scene and is anxious to get back to something more in keeping with his background. His assignment is changed but to writing features for the new weekly supplement on interior design. Since he cannot afford to quit he gamely decides to tackle the project. Within a short period of time he is immersed into a new world filled with characters every bit as strange and colorful as the arts crowd he has just left. Life seems to be looking up for Qwill, the writing assignment is going well and one of his new friends asks Qwill and Koko to housesit his apartment while he is away on business. After the new magazine hits the stands problems begin, thefts and bodies begin to pile up. Pointed in the right direction by Koko's hints Qwill solves the mysteries. Along the way both Koko and Qwill acquire new ladies in their lives, Koko has found his Yum-Yum and Qwill begins a romance with 'Cokey' Wright, a designer who shares is taste for modern decor. This mystery was originally published in 1967 but has worn well. The fans of this series need to be aware that this is not set in Moose County but instead covers Qwill earlier life in the Big City 'down below'. The characters that Qwill meets are, however, every bit as charming and quirky as those in Moose County, and like those in the later books do seem to turn up in subsequent novels. Unlike the later additions to this series the emphasis is more on murder and less on cozy although there is no profanitiy, graphic violence or explicit sex.

In which Qwilleran. . .:
. . .is taken off the Art beat, and assigned to the task of edition a color supplement for the "Daily Fluxion". The subject? Decorating! In this tightly written mystery, Qwilleran, with the help of Koko the brilliant Siamese cat, solves the mystery of two murders and the apparent theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in collectible jade. By the end, he also acquires a second cat, the delightful female Siamese Yum Yum. One of the better of the series and a good rainy day read.

Crime reporter transferred to interior decorating beat:
When I first read this mystery, it was the second of a 3-volume series, the last of which had appeared in 1968. Only with the 4th book, _The Cat Who Saw Red_ (1986), did the series take off into its at-least-1-book-a-year mode, and only with the 5th, _TCW Played Brahms_, did Braun introduce Qwill to Moose County. _TCW Ate Danish Modern_ was the first Qwilleran book I ever read, and although it's best to begin with book 1, _TCW Could Read Backwards_, I can testify that you won't be lost if you pick this up first instead, nor will you spoil the solution of the previous book. Qwill is the type who'd probably think of himself as a dog person if he weren't a city dweller, but after the death of his landlord, he acquired custody of his landlord's closest companion: Kao K'o Kung, a Siamese familiarly known as Koko. (The original hardcover dustjacket was graced with a photograph of his namesake: the author's feline companion.) The other consequences of his landlord's death led to one of Qwill's 4 problems at the opening of the story: 1) he has to find a new place to live, 2) he wants to be in the Daily Fluxion's city room rather than on the art beat, 3) no current girlfriend, and 4) moths are eating up all his ties - so he runs the risk of being homeless, jobless, womanless, and tieless all at once. (Hey, I didn't say this was Shakespearean tragedy.) Before Qwill can request a transfer from the managing editor, he's informed that a change of assignment is already lined up: the Fluxion is trying to divert advertising revenue from magazines to their own coffers, and so a new Sunday supplement is coming online, and Qwill will be in charge of its features. The catch? The home furnishing industry is making the advertising experiment - so the Sunday magazine, Gracious Abodes, covers the interior decorating beat. Qwill's horrified reaction is softened since the transfer includes a promotion and raise. Odd Bunsen, the Flux's daredevil photographer, is slower to overcome his resentment at his own transfer. Up through book 4, this was the standard opening move in a Qwill story: transfer the poor devil from his current assignment to some weird beat as far from the City Room as a veteran crime reporter could imagine, and throw him in at the deep end. As with his previous assignment to the art beat, he finds the professional rivalries unexpectedly interesting. Consider Lyke and Starkweather, for instance - Starkweather (a rather bland middle-aged executive) handles the business end while Lyke handles clients and the actual decoration jobs. Lyke's charismatic, but the depths beneath his surface charm are somewhat murky. He butters people up left and right, then sneers at them for taking him seriously. His childhood friendship - back before he moved uptown and changed his name - with Jack Baker ended acrimoniously after Jack saved his pennies, went to the Sorbonne, then returned to town as "Jacques Boulonger", the Duxburys' decorator "from Paris". (Jack's background isn't really secret, but his society clients wouldn't like to admit that far from being an exotic novelty, he's a self-made African-American from their own city.) Jack even rubbed in his success at having taken away Lyke's old money clients by moving into the Villa Verandah, where Lyke lives, but in a nicer apartment on a higher floor. :) Lyke does well enough, though, with the new money clients out in Lost Lake Hills. By chance, Qwill starts with Lyke when seeking a big society name for the cover of Gracious Abodes' first issue, and thus draws the Taits. At first Mrs. Tait's sharp tongue seems the worst feature of the household, and Tait's obsession with his jade collection the oddest. Then the morning after the first issue of Gracious Abodes hits the street, Tait's jade collection is stolen, his wife is dead of a heart attack, and the police - and the Fluxion's competitor, the Morning Rampage - are asking why the Flux seems to be printing blueprints for burglary. (One of the elements dating the story is the Fluxion's policy of always printing names and addresses, but as you can see, its logical consequences come home to roost.) Each of the first few editions of _Gracious Abodes_ is plagued by a different catastrophe, and Qwill faces reassignment to the church editor's beat if he can't break the jinx. Are some or all of the incidents related - and if so, who's behind them? I recommend the unabridged audio read by George Guidall over the book on its own, although I enjoy that too. Scenes like Odd Bunsen's drunken pursuit of Koko across the balconies of the Villa Verandah must be heard to be appreciated fully. :)

2nd in the Cat Who series:
Qwilleran, the middle-aged editor, is assigned to a new upscale decorating magazine called "Gracious Abodes" in this 2nd in the series of "Cat Who" books. Qwilleran relunctantly takes his new assignment and struggles to make it a success. Unfortuately, he stumbles into several crime scenes that are linked to the magazine's publication and they threaten his job security. He does not give up, but tries to solve the murders. With the assistance of his Siamese cat Koko, he is able to piece together the puzzle to solve the mystery! Great light-reading book for mystery and cat lovers. Koko comes to life on the pages and you can't put it down!