Celeste W. reviewed The Man Who Understood Cats (John Thinnes and Jack Caleb, Bk 1) on + 16 more book reviews
Interesting characters, good read.
Cyndi J. (cyndij) reviewed The Man Who Understood Cats (John Thinnes and Jack Caleb, Bk 1) on + 1031 more book reviews
I totally picked this up because of the title. It won a Malice Domestic Award in 1992 for Best First Traditional Mystery. Two interesting protagonists - Jack Caleb, a wealthy gay psychologist and John Thinnes, a homicide detective with a troubled marriage. One of Caleb's clients, a youngish accountant is found dead as an apparent suicide, but Thinnes catches the case and he is sure it's murder. When he's sure of something he will never give up, and when he finds Caleb also asking questions, his certainty doubles. The title comes from Caleb's habit of categorizing people as "cat people" or "dog people", there's not really a lot of cat activity going on. I liked both of them although I found their "voices" to be a little too similar although Caleb is more enigmatic than Thinnes. I did guess the villain early although it was just a guess, and I liked how the mystery and danger accelerated towards the ending. I also liked how Thinnes starts out with the usual stereotypes about gay men and then starts to lose them. However, don't go expecting a romance between the two. Anyway, nice police procedural and there are 4 more in the series.
