The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
First edition, 1966
|
|
| Author | Lilian Jackson Braun |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Cat Who series |
| Genre | Mystery, Novel |
| Publisher | E. P. Dutton |
|
Publication date
|
1966 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (Jove pb, 2007) |
| ISBN | (Jove pb, 2007) |
| OCLC | 154688712 |
| Followed by | The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern |
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is the first novel in Lilian Jackson Braun's The Cat Who... series, published in 1966.
In the first book of the series, the reader is introduced to James Mackintosh Qwilleran (Qwill), a former crime reporter turned newsman on The Daily Fluxion. His first assignment is the art beat where he meets a rather eccentric – and not very well-liked – art critic whom he befriends. He also meets the critic's cat, a Siamese named Kao K'o-Kung, Koko for short.
Jim Qwilleran is attempting to get his life back on track, starting with a new job; his old acquaintance, Arch Riker, is taking a chance. Qwilleran became known as a journalist for covering crime, but his new job at the Flux is hardly so glamorous: he's working on the art beat. The paper's resident art critic is the reclusive and decidedly unpopular one-handed man named George Bonifield Mountclemens III. Qwill visits Mountclemens and meets Koko, a male Siamese cat who appears to be able to read, but only backwards. Qwilleran rents a room from Mountclemens and starts to take care of Koko, who has rather delicate taste in eating.
Mountclemens adores some local artists and despises others. One of the former is a young woman, Zoe Lambreth, whose husband owns the Lambreth Gallery, which showcases her works among others, including Scrano, and Zoe's protégé, Nino. Mountclemens has an argument with Noel Farhar, the director of an art museum; the museum lost a million-dollar deal after a bad review from Mountclemens, and as a result Farhar is retiring.
One evening, Qwill is relaxing in the Press Club with his friend, the Flux photographer Odd Bunsen, when Bunsen is paged: there's been a murder at the Lambreth Gallery. Specifically, it's the owner, Earl Lambreth, and the gallery was left in disarray, with paintings destroyed and furniture tossed about. Qwill notices that a Ghirotto painting, or rather half of one, is missing; intact, the painting of a ballerina and monkey would be worth $150,000, but Lambreth's half, the ballerina, has disappeared.
Qwill attempts to comfort the attractive widow Lambreth, who is being protected and cared for by a friend named Butchy, also an artist and a teacher. A dagger goes missing from the art museum. Mountclemens, just returned from a trip, does not seem very interested in Earl's death.
As an art writer, Qwill goes to a "happening" featuring Nino. Nino's creations are made from things that people throw away, things that have meaning to him that others may not necessarily understand. The show ends disastrously, when one of Nino's creations is knocked from its scaffolding, and Nino falls to his death attempting to save it.
...
Wikipedia