*Cat in a Sapphire Slipper* is the twentieth title in Carole Nelson Douglas's sassy Midnight Louie mystery series. The tough-talking, twenty-pound, tomcat PI is as feisty as ever as he and his gang try to keep his favorite roommate from losing her man. PR honcho Temple Barr's romance novelist aunt Kit has wound up in a romantic plot of her own. She's snagged one of the most eligible bachelors on the Strip, one of the elder Fontana brothers, a silver-tongued reputed ex-mobster with a heart of gold. There is to be a wedding...and where there is a wedding there is usually a bachelor party. Things go disastrously wrong when the entire party is hijacked and taken to a remote ranch out in the Nevada desert, a place where the women are wild and the sex is legal. And among the group? None other than Temple's own Matt, an ex-priest. Truly a fish out of water, he soon comes upon a beautiful young woman...
Cat in a
Sapphire Slipper
By Carole Nelson Douglas from Tom Doherty Associates
MYSTERY
MIDNIGHT LOUIE MYSTERIES
Catnap
Pussyfoot
Cat on a Blue Monday
Cat in a Crimson Haze
Cat in a Diamond Dazzle
Cat with an Emerald Eye
Cat in a Flamingo Fedora
Cat in a Golden Garland
Cat on a Hyacinth Hunt
Cat in an Indigo Mood
Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit
Cat in a Kiwi Con
Cat in a Leopard Spot
Cat in a Midnight Choir
Cat in a Neon Nightmare
Cat in an Orange Twist
Cat in a Hot Pink Pursuit
Cat in a Quicksilver Caper
Cat in a Red Hot Rage
Cat in a Sapphire Slipper
Midnight Louie’s Pet Detectives
(anthology)
IRENE ADLER ADVENTURES
Good Night, Mr. Holmes
The Adventuress* (Good Morning, Irene)
A Soul of Steel* (Irene at Large)
Another Scandal in Bohemia* (Irene’s Last Waltz)
Chapel Noir
Castle Rouge
Femme Fatale
Spider Dance
Marilyn: Shades of Blonde (anthology)
HISTORICAL
ROMANCE
Amberleigh†
Lady Rogue†
Fair Wind, Fiery Star
SCIENCE
FICTION
Probe†
Counterprobe†
FANTASY
TALISWOMAN
Cup of Clay
Seed upon the Wind
SWORD AND CIRCLET
Six of Swords
Exiles of the Rynth
Keepers of Edanvant
Heir of Rengarth
Seven of Swords
* These are the reissued editions.
† Also mystery
A MIDNIGHT LOUIE MYSTERY
Carole Nelson Douglas
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CAT IN A SAPPHIRE SLIPPER: A MIDNIGHT LOUIE MYSTERY
Copyright © 2008 by Carole Nelson Douglas
All rights reserved.
A Forge Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Douglas, Carole Nelson.
Cat in a sapphire slipper : a Midnight Louie mystery / Carole Nelson Douglas.—1st hardcover ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1861-9
ISBN-10: 0-7653-1861-X
1. Midnight Louie (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Barr, Temple (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Public relations consultants—Fiction. 4. Las Vegas (Nev.)—Fiction. 5. Women cat owners—Fiction. 6. Cats—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3554.O8237 C27697 2008
813’.54—dc22
2008028538
First Edition: September 2008
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Previously in Midnight Louie’s Lives and Times . . .
Chapter 1:
A Surprising Scenario
Chapter 2:
Shallow Wound, Deep End
Chapter 3:
A Deeper Shade of Black
Chapter 4:
A Winning Pair of Diamonds
Chapter 5:
Cleanup Detail
Chapter 6:
Here Comes the Ride
Chapter 7:
Girls’ Night In
Chapter 8:
High Anxiety
Chapter 9:
From Here to Urbanity
Chapter 10:
Perennial Partner
Chapter 11:
Deja Vu
Chapter 12:
Cell in Solitary
Chapter 13:
Courtesans on Parade
Chapter 14:
Name Day
Chapter 15:
Bridesmaids Revisited
Chapter 16:
Champagne Suite
Chapter 17:
Garden of Lies and Spies
Chapter 18:
Boys Just Want to Have Fun
Chapter 19:
Peep Show at the Chicken Ranch
Chapter 20:
Dirty Laundry
Chapter 21:
Hen Party
Chapter 22:
Dead Spot
Chapter 23:
Rescue Party
Chapter 24:
Hitchhikers
Chapter 25:
Taking Back the Night
Chapter 26:
Eight Berettas for Eight Brothers
Chapter 27:
Mental Clime
Chapter 28:
Slippery Slope
Chapter 29:
Feline Fatales
Chapter 30:
Compromising Positions
Chapter 31:
Wildest Schemes
Chapter 32:
Terrorizing Trio
Chapter 33:
Posthomicidal Nerves
Chapter 34:
Highly Suggestive
Chapter 35:
Crime Scene
Chapter 36:
Mama Molina!
Chapter 37:
Three Cat Night
Chapter 38:
Devised to Disguise
Chapter 39:
Mass Matrimony
Chapter 40:
Memories of the Fall
Chapter 41:
Ladies-in-Waiting
Chapter 42:
Happy Hooker?
Chapter 43:
Command Post
Chapter 44:
Dead of Night
Chapter 45:
A Fine Kettle of Fish
Chapter 46:
Wheel of Misfortune
Chapter 47:
Loving Dangerously
Chapter 48:
Break Dancing
Chapter 49:
Louie’s Imps
Chapter 50:
Missing Max
