SAM SPADE WITH HAIRBALLS! Our hero, Midnight Louie, is a hard-boiled, hairy chested, 19-pound black tomcat detective; his turf is the sizzling asphalt-and-neon-jungle of America's gambling Mecca, Las Vegas. After a holiday trip to the Big Apple, Midnight Louie returns home to death on the Nile when battling Egyptian barges outside the Oasis hotel cause a dead body to rise to the surface. The soggy victim is well known to Temple Barr, Louie's redheaded, high-heeled human companion. Her two best beaux have been closely involved with the dead man, and both have reasons to want him dead. Maybe now, by finding out which of her beaux is the killer, Temple can finally choose between hand some hotline counselor Matt Devine and mysterious magician, Max Kinsella. And then there are the new girls in town: a sultry lady magician named Shangri-La, who may play a bigger role than anyone might imagine, and her winsome Siamese cat, who may solve Louie's problems by giving him the key to her heart-or the key to solving the mystery.

CAROLE NELSON DOUGLAS is the award-winning author of the Midnight Louie series, in a Flamingo Fedora, and Cat in a Golden Garland. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas.