Carole Nelson Douglas is at the top of her form with a fast-paced, funny plot that segues from the Las Vegas strip to Northern Ireland while providing a vastly entertaining intertwined tale.

Sleek, sophisticated Midnight Louie, that most precocious black cat and self-described “noir kind of guy,” prowls again in his 22nd delightful adventure. This time, the furry private eye enlists a posse of feline friends to solve murders both past and present while taking on the mob in Las Vegas.

Louie's owner, Temple Barr, is public relations consultant for the boutique Vegas hotel Crystal Phoenix, and her boss decides to hike sagging revenues by creating a Mecca for mob aficionados in the city that never sleeps. The plan includes an inventive underground “chunnel of crime” stretching from crime scene to crime scene. Temple takes on the project while balancing worries over her missing former ex-boyfriend, Max the magician, and dealing with her present fiancé, Matt, a talk show host.

Veteran mystery author Douglas deftly switches from character to character in alternating chapters to tell her tale, thereby revealing Louie’s delightful first-person (first-cat?) wry musings and take on crime-solving techniques. Interspersed are chapters that examine Temple's own quandaries. Not only cat lovers will be engaged by Douglas’ tale. Astute readers will also recognize an alphabetical cast to this well-received series.