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Coming soon:

The latest book in the Petectives series:

Petectives: Under Fire – It’s the 4th of July and the Petectives are feeling the heat! In the midst of a sweltering heat wave, feline detectives Yoshi and Gatsby get word that an old enemy is back and running a protection racket in their neighborhood. When an attack lands Gatsby’s girlfriend in the veterinary hospital, he gets hot under the collar but it may take Yoshi’s cool logic to shut down a gang of animal criminals and clear a dog from a horrible accusation. The Petectives are back and there’s going to be fireworks!

Petectives: Christmas Party Playlist

A list of songs that I listened to while writing Petectives: Christmas Party. Some of the songs have a strong thematic link to the story, while others helped me set a scene or get into the heads of the characters. Forget all that, its Christmas music! Who doesn’t like Christmas music?

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole: This was the first song on a Christmas album that my mom would play while she made Christmas cookies. It’s not Christmas for me until I hear this song fifty or sixty times.

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder: The first thing that you hear is the drums and bass and you know that you’re listening to classic Motown. Then the jingle bells kick in and you know that you’re hearing a Christmas song. Then Stevie Wonder starts singing and you get one of the best Christmas songs ever recorded.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Frank Sinatra

Sweetest Thing – New Voices of Freedom (featuring Adriane Mc Donald & George Pendergrass) – This Gospelled up version of the U2 song isn’t a Christmas song (Although it is from the soundtrack of the movie ‘Scrooged’). The song inspired the relationship between the Zabisco and Missy characters in Petectectives: Christmas Party.

Happy Holiday (Beef Wellington Remix) – Bing Crosby: Dusty old Bing Crosby Christmas song remixed with a modern dance beat. Weird juxtaposition that actually works.

Cool Yule – Louis Armstrong: All of the fun of the holidays in pure undiluted form.

Celebration – Kool and the Gang: Not a Christmas song but definitely one of the all-time great party songs.

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby: Here’s how this version ends: “If you keep your nose a red, red rose. If you keep your beak all pink and sleek. And if you keep your snooze maroon because, You’ll go down in history.” Brilliant.

Christmas Is Coming – Vince Guaraldi Trio:This jazz melody is from the soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. That whole CD should be the sound track to Petectives: Christmas Party but it’s already taken.

Christmas Must Be Tonight – Robbie Robertson: Rock retelling of the Nativity.

My Favorite Things – The Supremes: I’m not normally a big Rodgers and Hammerstein fan but Diana Ross really sells this version. I don’t know if Ms. Ross actually likes schnitzel and noodles but I totally believe it when she belts it out here.

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway

A Merrier Christmas – Diane Reeves: A little known Christmas song composed by jazz genius Thelonious Monk. A musical interpretation of an idyllic American Christmas experience.

Sleigh Ride – Ella Fitzgerald

White Christmas – The Drifters: Classic do-wop interpretation of the holiday standard.

Book Review: Return of the Thin Man

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Return of the Thin Man was a nice read. The further adventures of Nick, Nora and their dog Asta, the book consists of two novellas that Hammett wrote specifically to be adapted into the screenplays for the first two Thin Man sequels, “After the Thin Man” and “Another Thin Man”. These stories seem more like first drafts of screenplays than actual novellas as they’re written in present tense and there’s not a ton of description. However the dialogue is razor sharp and the balance of mystery and comedy that Hammett exploited in the first Thin Man novel is successfully maintained. The comedy comes from both the ultra-cool, witty characters of Nick and Nora Charles as well as situations stemming from Nick’s lowbrow detective past coming into conflict with Nora’s stuffy old money friends and relatives. Hammett also has a lot of fun with Asta, the dog who chews on both scenery and clues.
I recommend this book if you liked the Thin Man novels or movies. Shorty after I finished reading this, Turner Classic Movies had a Dashiell Hammett night and showed “After the Thin Man”. It was fascinating to see that this novella mostly survived the transition of being adapted into a screenplay and then filmed. Some minor plot points were changed but most of the situations and dialogue that Hammett wrote faithfully made it to the screen.
At this point in his career, Dashiell Hammett’s best work was fading fast in his rear view mirror but even mediocre Hammett is better than a lot of the choices in the bookstore today. This isn’t nearly as good as The Maltese Falcon or Red Harvest or the original Thin Man novel but it is an excellent way to spend a couple hours.

Weird Cat Items on Ebay

A few feline oddities that can be found on Ebay:

Phone case with an image of a cartoon woman feeding pizza to a real cat.

Phone case with an image of a cartoon woman feeding pizza to a real cat.

An antique print of a cat hanging upside down pretending to be dead with mice and rats beneath him exploring mousetraps

An antique print of a cat hanging upside down pretending to be dead with mice and rats beneath him exploring mousetraps

Ceramic ashtray painted and shaped like a cat's head.

Ceramic ashtray painted and shaped like a cat’s head.

Yep

Yep

Cat butt salt and pepper shakers

Cat butt salt and pepper shakers

cat skullface figurine

cat skullface figurine

Crazy cat lady action figure

Crazy cat lady action figure

Cat geek tee

Cat geek tee