Nick Smith (4) (1972–)

Crime, gangs and corruption from a cat’s eye view. Feline reporter Julius Kyle works as a reporter for the Post, a newspaper in the kitty metropolis of Bast. When Julius’ colleague jumps to his death from a bridge, Julius takes over the suicide’s assignment of investigating two rival street gangs.

Humans don’t enter into this “kitty noir tail”, and I liked it that way! Flesh and blood felines might be offended by being portrayed with such human vices, but I found this story a good and refreshing escape… (mer)

I finished The Kitty Killer Cult by Nick Smith. Not sure what to make of it. It is the follow up to Milk Treading.

In the first book the POV was a hack newspaper writer called Julius Kyle. He wrote trashy PI mysteries on the side, and had a famous storyline, but it ran down and he and his detective were old and out of favor. This was a minor part of the first book. This book is actually supposed to be the book Julius Kyle was writing during the events of Milk Treading, the first book.

Oh yeah, all the characters are either cats, dogs or mice/rats. Though in the second book there is a cow with a cameo. These are not cute and cuddly critters, but like real people, warts and all, and seriously disgusting personal habits. The setting is very noirish, with spare and gritty writing.

The POV of this book is the aged PI Tiger Straight who is down on his luck and loses his home, his office, his assistant, and his job.

The story is a bunch of crime vignettes, strung together with Tiger and the Cops, (who assign a mouse detective, an equal opportunity - token hire) vying to solve the crimes. There are lots of details about life in the cat city, and the personal lives of all involved.

The evidence points to the mysterious KKC and the race is on to find them, survive the encounter, and bring them to justice. The story takes some odd turns and ends with cats being forced to save mice from a camp that conducts stupid scientific experimentation on them.

I think the author who is Scottish, is commenting on quite a few aspects of modern life with quite a sharp implement.

It was a quick read, if a bit lost for a focus or purpose at times.… (mer)