publishing order of cat who… books
Publication order of story collections cat que
‘The Cat Who’ is a 29-volume mystery novel by the late Lilian Braun. The book follows Jim Qwilleran, a well-established reporter, and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum-yum.
The first novel in the series, ‘The Cat Who Could Read Upside Down’, was written and published in 1966 by G.P. son of putnam (the publisher behind all the books in the series).
You are reading: Cat who books in order
Two other novels followed shortly thereafter, ‘The Cat Who Ate Modern Dane’ and ‘The Cat Who Could Turn It On and Off’ (published in 1967 and 1968 respectively) and the fourth novel appeared eighteen years later. the last novel of ‘the cat that…’ was published in 2007, after the publisher canceled the thirtieth edition after the author’s death.
The entire novel revolves around Qwill, whose father, Dana, was reportedly a highly talented stage actor who had the privilege of traveling across the country. but after meeting anne mackintosh (qwill’s mother), he decided to move to chicago, to be able to stay with her and find an excuse to leave the theater group, a decision that his parents strongly opposed to the point that they decided to disown him and break it up . out of all contact.
Without money and deprived of job opportunities, Dana had no choice but to fall into the wrong paths in a desperate attempt to stay afloat. It wasn’t long before he was shot dead while he was attempting a robbery.
so qwill was raised by a single mother, knowing no other family besides his mom and his close friend francesca, known to him as aunt fanny.
qwill, as we are told, had a flair for literature and was very talented at school. he had won numerous spelling bees and spent most of his time working on his grammar and playing baseball. his English teacher loved him very much and helped him a lot to compose exciting essays.
at 17, qwill’s girlfriend, joy, would leave town to pursue other goals in life, while qwill would decide to join the service.
The author doesn’t go into detail about the war he fought in, but judging from the small details we can glean, there’s a good chance he was involved in Operation Torch in WWII.
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He would eventually leave the service, but with an injured knee that meant he couldn’t play baseball. therefore, he decided to enter college and pursue acting, only to discover that he had a natural knack for journalism.
journalism became a great success for him. He reported on the crimes occurring in the area to a major newspaper and even gained the privilege of becoming a published author, writing his first book ‘The City of Brotherly Crime’ which would end up winning numerous awards and becoming a bestseller.
He would soon marry Miriam, an established advertising executive, who is described as resembling Joy. Sadly, the marriage ended in a devastating divorce, leaving Miriam committed to an insane asylum and Qwill, because of her, a depressed alcoholic who will eventually see to it that she loses her job.
so one night, while half drunk, he falls asleep in the passage of a subway train. he luckily he is rescued in time by a good samaritan. this unfolding brings him closer to a harsh reality, pushing him to change for the better.
The rest of the story revolves around qwill trying to get his life back on track. Though not quite as glamorous, his new job keeps the world around him going.
one day he visits george mountclements, the newspaper art critic who lives a few blocks from him, where he meets koko, a siamese cat who can read, but only backwards. He rents a room from Mountclement and moves in with Koko, who has delicate taste in the food he eats.
mountclements admires several local artists in the area, but there are some he hates just as much. Fitting into the former group is a young maiden, Zoe Lambreth, who is married to the owner of the Lambreth Gallery, a company she works for along with a long list of other employees including Scrano and his protégé Nino.
On a Saturday night, Qwill is busy letting off steam at a local bar with one of his friends, Bunsen, a photographer he also works with, when Bunsen receives a text message on a pager reporting a murder incident. at lambreth gallery. It turns out that it is the company’s owner, Earl Lambreth, who is murdered.
the lambreth gallery is in total disarray; the furniture is thrown and all the paintings are destroyed. Qwill notices that a Ghirotto painting valued at $150,000 is missing.
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being an art writer, qwill participates in a “happening” with nino. nino has a strange talent. all of his creation comes from the things that other people throw away. these are the things that make sense to him, but mean absolutely nothing to those around him.
Nino succumbs to his death after one of his creations is knocked off its scaffolding. Qwill has to combine his skills and ingenuity to get to the root of the murder.
In the second volume, The Cat Who Ate Modern Danish Food, the story unfolds as Qwill and her Siamese cat settle into a new assignment: one involving a magazine dealing with home decor.
she meets david lyke while doing homework, who introduces her to his friend george tait and mrs. Tait, who we are told she paid David to decorate his mansion in a sultry swamp, an ultra-rich neighboring estate, some time ago.
as a jade collector, george asks old bunsen to take pictures of them. the next day, news arriving in the report of mr. tait’s mansion being robbed, and mrs. tait’s death which appears to have been as a result of a heart attack.
qwill meets another member of david’s clientele who is in the company of his friends in the decorating business, including harry noyton and natalie (noyton’s ex-wife). Noyton offers to rent Qwill’s expensive apartment from him since he will be traveling to Europe.
qwill moves into the new house, but koko starts eating the furniture fabric and even bites the new lady he’s dating at the time.
he soon discovers that harry noyton was a close acquaintance of mrs. tait and is currently in denmark and not in europe as she had suggested.
He begins to suspect that some of the raids that are going on have something to do with sabotaging his assignments one morning when a house he was supposed to cover is also raided. His third mission, involving David Lyke’s apartment, is thwarted when Old Man Bunsen and Koko come across David’s dead body. Although he has a Japanese chef as a prime suspect, he again has to apply his skills and ingenuity to unravel the truth.
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