Carole Douglas - Brimstone Kiss

The series has won readers and awards for addressing contemporary issues. Although the typical Midnight Louie outing is witty fun, noted Mostly Murder, it also covers a "multitude of serious and topical issues," such as sexual addiction and obsession, monogamy, celibacy, sexual responsibility and familial responsibility versus sexual need and personal need, theology, stalking, sanity and insanity, honor and commitment, and the keeping of vows and trusts. "No small accomplishment for a thoroughly entertaining mystery with occasional chapters 'written' by an anthropomorphic tough-guy private-eye cat" with a Damon Runyonesque writing voice, the reviewer concluded.

Since 1996, the national Midnight Louie Adopt-a-Cat tours have "found good homes for books and cats," as Douglas says, by combining local shelter cat adoptions with bookstore signings.

Douglas also edited a short fiction anthology, Marilyn: Shades of Blonde, in which fantasy, mystery, and mainstream writers analyzed the film icon's life, death, and afterlife. She moonlights as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to perform her contribution. a dramatic monologue speculating what MM would be, and would be doing, were she alive today. A second anthology is "edited" by Midnight Louie himself: Midnight Louie's Pet Detectives includes stories by mystery and fantasy writers featuring animals from hamsters to elephants.

Douglas collects vintage clothing when she has any spare time. She and her husband Sam Douglas, former director of exhibitions for the Minnesota Museum of Art, are kept as pets by seven adopted cats and a dog in Fort Worth.