The Man Who Understood Cats
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
The award-winning first novel pairing gay psychiatrist Jack Caleb with burned-out Chicago cop John Thinnes is a “cunning, adroit debut” (Publishers Weekly).
When a CPA with OCD is found shot dead in his locked apartment with a .38 in his hand, only two people don’t believe he killed himself. One is streetwise and world-weary Chicago homicide detective John Thinnes. The other is the victim’s therapist, Dr. Jack Caleb, whose sudden appearance at the crime scene immediately arouses the cop’s suspicions.
The two men couldn’t be more different. Caleb is wealthy, well-educated, and gay, witty enough to name his housecats Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner. Between job burnout and marital trouble, Thinnes lost his sense of humor a long time ago. He’s not sure if the good doctor is an ally or his prime suspect. But as they begin to work together, the unlikely partners discover they do share common ground, most notably as Vietnam vets, and that they might be able to help each other as well as solve a baffling murder . . .
“Winner of [St. Martin’s] Best First Malice Domestic Novel Award . . . this assured and unusual debut boasts expressive language and sinewy notions of suspense.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Winner of the publisher's Best First Malice Domestic Novel award in 1991, this assured and unusual debut boasts expressive language and sinewy notions of suspense. We never know the quiet, compulsive accountant whose death the police suspect wasn't suicide (a lefty wouldn't likely use his right hand to pull the trigger). The case brings together the victim's prominent psychiatrist, Jack Caleb, and streetwise police officer John Thinnes. From the moment the two meet, their stories, their conflict and their grudging mutual admiration lead the reader far into the troubled hearts of both men. Jack is enduring the death of a lover and the alarming aftermath of his Vietnam experience. John's marriage is unraveling under long work hours and silences that echo with resentment and hurt. Both men are looking for the killer in a plot that extends to the victim's possession of a lithograph, an art gallery, a dead young artist, a tortured father and a large real estate empire. The unmasking of the murderer comes as a shock to the reader who, having been drawn so deep into the lives of Jack and John, will have all but forgotten that a mystery awaits a solution. A cunning, adroit debut by a pseudonymous author.
