The Man Who Understood Cats: A Caleb & Thinnes Mystery

By Michael Allen Dymmoch

Book Overview

Two unlikely partners join forces to solve a murder disguised as suicide and catch a killer ready to strike again.

Gold Coast psychiatrist Jack Caleb is wealthy, cultured, and gay. When one of his clients is found dead in a locked apartment--apparently from a self-inflicted wound-- burned-out Chicago detective John Thinnes doesn't believe it was suicide. And Caleb is inclined to agree.

But Thinnes regards a shrink who makes house calls suspicious and starts his murder investigation with the doctor himself. An attack on Caleb that's made to look like an accidental drug overdose starts to change the detective's mind.

Soon, the two men find themselves a whirlwind of theft, scandal, and blackmail. Forced into an unlikely partnership, they'll have to confront not only a killer, but hard truths within themselves that will change them forever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1626819351
• ISBN13: 9781626819351
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

a must read

The first of a series of books that introduce our two main characters. If you love a mystery that is not solved till the last chapter this is one for you.

an excellent, thoughtful mystery

i can add little to the previous reviews. i am contributing my own simply to further encourage any browser to read this book. the author reveals a rare depth of understanding in the creations of her characters. they are believable, multi-faceted human beings. and the protagonists are admirable people. there are displays of social responsiblity and moral courage, qualities i sometimes think are completely absent from the contemporary american character. the relationship between the detective and the psychologist is well drawn. the writing is wonderful. the plot is well developed. the secondary characters are as well drawn and as interesting as the protagonists. the dialogue is extremely good. i disagree with the reviewer who faulted the motivation of the crimes. i was satisfied with it, and i felt that there were just enough clues for the reader to work out at least some of the plot. i have gone on to read other titles in this series, and have enjoyed them thoroughly. all in all, this writer and this series are definitely worth pursuing.

Cats and Crime

There are lots of cats and crime novels out there...crime solving cats are almost a cliche. But in Dymmoch's first mystery novel, cats are metaphors for human behavior: independent, intelligent, and irrepressible. Dymmoch writes about them well...in fact, Dymmoch is an excellent writer in general. "The Man Who Understood Cats" is well written, and fairly well constructed, though I felt it a bit repetitive: the sequence of murders seemed similarly devised (suicides made to look like murders) and the ultimate discovery of the murder was an anticlimax: he was the least developed of characters and his motives remain unclear.However, I enjoyed the setting and the partnership of cop and shrink, and I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

Not Necessarily for Lillian Jackson Braun Fans

Don't let the title of this mystery fool you into thinking that this is one of those cute mysteries in which man and cat solve crime. This riveting first mystery features Chicago detective John Thinnes and psychiatrist Jack Caleb, neither of whom believe that Dr Caleb's patient, Allan Finley, an obsessive but otherwise unremarkable accountant, committed suicide.The plot is complex and suspenseful, but what makes this book special is the relationship between Detective Thinnes who is near burnout and the openly gay Dr. Caleb. Each man is forced to reassess what he thinks of the other as they work together to solve the crime.As a psychotherapist, I found Dr Caleb very believable. He is a skilled, well-trained professional not a mind reader. Dymmoch understands, as many writers don't, that a good pyschiatrists and detectives have a lot in common with the ideal writer of fiction who in the words of Henry James is "a person on whom nothing is lost."