The Petectives present The Mount Rushmore of Cat Detectives

By Robert Smith

Gatsby (the orange cat) and Yoshi (the black cat), the cat detectives from the Petectives series, discuss fictional cat detectives.

Yoshi: Greetings Cat People! This is Yoshi and Gatsby from the Petectives books.

Gatsby: What’s happening?

Yoshi: We’re doing a blog post for the Cat Writers Association, discussing the Mount Rushmore of cat detectives.

Gatsby: What does that mean? Am I on it? You can answer the second question first.

Yoshi: I’ll just answer the first one. The phrase “Mount Rushmore of …” is generally understood to mean a list of the top four best-known or most influential figures in a given field. I believe that fictional cat detectives are an established staple of literature and deserving of such a list.

Gatsby: And who better to decide who goes up there than us, the stars of our own cat mystery series? Who would be your first choice for the Mount Rushmore of cat detectives? Is it a charming orange cat that you’re speaking to right now?

Yoshi: It is not. I suppose that my first pick would be Mrs. Murphy, the featured cat sleuth of the series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown.

Gatsby: That’s when Mrs. Murphy and her crew go into action!

Yoshi: Correct. Without the humans’ knowledge, the animals usually conduct their own investigation and always aid in solving the mystery. In some of the novels, they even save Harry’s life. For example, in the holiday-themed novel Santa Clawed, Harry is attacked and the series would’ve come to an end right there if the pets hadn’t come to her rescue.

Overall, I’d say that this series has the usual cozy mystery trappings, but the stories seem more substantial. The authors have a definite point of view and they are not afraid to share it with the readers. Now my next pick would have to be —

Gatsby: Wait a minute. I want to make the next pick!

Yoshi: Fine. Who would you like to see on the cat detective Mount Rushmore?

Gatsby: One of my personal heroes. A very deserving black cat detective.

Yoshi: Well, that’s very flattering, but I’m not sure that I …

Gatsby: Of course, I’m talking about Midnight Louie, the street-smart, hard-boiled cat from the series by Carole Nelson Douglas.

Yoshi: Of course you are.

Carole Nelson Douglas’ books are another favorite among cats.

Gatsby: Midnight Louie prowls the glitzy streets of Las Vegas, solving murders with his human:  freelance public relations agent Temple Barr. I love how the chapters alternate between the mundane human activity and the chapters narrated from Louie’s feline point of view.

Yoshi: Yes, the stories strike a perfect balance between Louie’s feline investigations with Temple’s amateur sleuthing and romantic entanglements.

Gatsby: I usually skip the chapters that Louie’s not narrating. The novel may not make a lot of sense that way, but it keeps me entertained.

Yoshi: You’re not alone in your admiration of Midnight Louie. His series spanned from 1992 to 2016, with 28 books.  They were critically acclaimed and won a plethora of awards, including Muse Medallions and “World’s Best Cat Litter-ary” awards from the CWA.

Yoshi: Now for the third entry on our monument to feline detection …

Gatsby: Is it me?

Yoshi: No! It’s Joe Grey from the mystery series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy that ran for 21 books from 1996 to 2020.

The Joel Grey series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy ran from from 1996 to 2020.

Gatsby: I can’t argue with that. Joe Grey’s cooler than the litterbox in January.

Yoshi: Joe Grey’s a gray cat who, along with his cat friends Dulcie and Kit, somehow has the ability to speak with and understand humans. They use this to surreptitiously assist the police in criminal investigations in their seaside community of Molina Point, California.

Gatsby: Ah, yes: Molena Point, where the air is salty, the crime rate is high, and the cops have no idea that the well informed, anonymous tips they keep getting are from cats.

Yoshi: Joe Grey’s adventures aren’t always cozy. There can be some serious crime going on, as well as some supernatural elements. In any case, the books are certainly high-quality, having won no fewer than four “World’s Best Cat Litter-ary” awards.

Gatsby: What about the fourth position on our Mount Rushmore of cat detectives? I would nominate myself, but you’d never stand for that. It can’t be the two of us; there’s only one more spot.

Yoshi: Not to mention that we don’t have half of the qualifications of any of the cats we’ve mentioned so far.

Gatsby: Whatever. I can’t think of anyone to go into the fourth spot.

Yoshi: You don’t read enough. There’s a host of worthy candidates. There’s Leger, the black cat from Lacey Dearie’s 44-book series about the life of a cat investigator in Glasgow, Scotland. There’s Max, the orange tabby from Nic Saint’s humorous mystery series “The Mysteries of Max,” which is now at more than 100 books and still going. There’s Hette Bagshot, the main detective of the “No. 1 Feline Detective Agency” series by Mandy Morton. She’s a private detective in a cozy, British world of anthropomorphic cats. There’s also …

Gatsby: Okay, okay! Who gets the honor?

Yoshi: Perhaps we should let the readers decide.

Gatsby: I love it. Let them do our job for us. What do you readers think? Who should be the fourth cute, fuzzy cat head on our Mount Rushmore? Any of the cats we named? Or some other cat detective we unjustly overlooked?

Yoshi: Because you rudely interrupted me!

Gatsby: Let us know in the comments.

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Note: The books mentioned above by Cat Writers Association members Carole Nelson Douglas, Shirley Rousseau Murphy, and Lacey Dearie are listed in the CWA Members’ Book Directory elsewhere on the CWA site (as well as Yoshi and Gatsby’s Petectives books!).