The Cat Who Talked Turkey
The Cat Who Talked Turkey is available at Amazon.com
The town of Pickax is preparing for the opening of a new library, soon to be directed by Polly Duncan. Meanwhile, the town of Brrr is eagerly anticipating its bicentennial year. Qwill has agreed to do a one-man show about the great storm of 1913, in a vein similar to the Great Fire show he has done to great acclaim in Pickax.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Andrew Brodie must figure out what happened to a well-dressed man, found murdered, execution-style on Qwill's lake front property. On his first trip to the property for the summer season, Qwill spies an unfamiliar couple walking on the shore. He later discovers that the young woman is the person who may serve as his sound-effects assistant during his Great Storm performance. She is called "Lish" and the young man, her "driver" is not so benevolently called "Lush".
When Qwill finally meets Lish, he is taken aback by her request for payment for doing the assignment. Since she is from Milwaukee, he offers to pay her to do some research on George Bonifield Montclemens III, Koko's original owner, and possibly find the cattery from whence Koko came.
We learn a few tidbits about Qwilleran's past: His mother's birthday is June 20; she was a librarian; her full name was Anne Mackintosh Qwilleran, and during college, Qwill abandoned his (then current) ambition to become a jazz pianist to major in journalism because his mother instilled in him a love for words. The topics of learning in this volume are the origins and traits of Siamese cats and the history of wild turkeys in America.
Members of this blog have suggested that this book is out of character compared to the other books in the series and have wondered out loud if it might have been written by another author. I read this book with a careful eye to style, and if a ghostwriter did indeed write this book, he/she pulled of a masterful imitation. For example:
In Chapter 6, at the very end, Qwill writes a short essay on Yum Yum's favorite toy, a silver thimble given him by the late Iris Cobb. In Chapter 7, a discussion takes place between Qwill and photographer John Bushland, a longtime friend from down below. The friendly camaraderie disguised in the roughest of sarcasm is one of LJB's hallmark styles.
The uncharacteristic scene in question takes place in Chapter 16 when Qwill takes Koko out to the Gazebo and leaves him with a man who he knows has a gun and is on the lam. Why he would do this instead of just calling the police Chief while he was in the barn calling his lawyer? Is it out of character? Most definitely, especially when an earlier chapter mentions that Qwill won't even leave the cats alone on the screened porch of his beach house because catnapped Siamese can bring good money on the black market. What was Qwill thinking, if indeed that was what he was doing? All I can figure out is that if Koko felt threatened he would have been on top of the perp's (who will remain unnamed here to keep from spoiling the story) head, claws dug in. Qwill knew this, although he did find reason to question his good sense when the story comes to a climax.
Discussion