After working in “government service”, Federal and state, I am quite accustomed to suspending disbelief. It is a job requirement for briefing generals or politicians.

“Of course, when you are writing about a cat solving mysteries you can’t be entirely serious.”

And she wasn’t. They were nice fluffy books. My inability to suspend disbelief was my problem, not a problem with the books, which were a perfectly good example of the kitty cat cozy.

Regarding predicting cat behavior, I understand that there are better odds of winning the lottery than doing that. Unless said prediction includes, “the cat will come whining to me demanding to be fed at some point in the next 24 hours”, which I can predict with 100% accuracy :).

– Badtux the Fictional Penguin

Yeah, those country estates in the UK were some dangerous places if Miss Marple and friends were correct about things. With all the dead bodies lying around, it becomes clear how Brits developed that whole stiff upper lip thing. It was either that, or run screaming and hide under the bed in fear that you’re next ;).

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Badtux, most of the “cat solved the murder” are rationalizations after the fact, quite similar to the way some people believe ‘psychics’ solve crime. I don’t consider the fact that a cat likes a book to be much of clue, especially if the book is a Shakespearean play. I would wonder if you had been eating a tuna sandwich the last time you read the book, or if there were traces of catnip in your bookmark?

The ‘psychic’ said there was a ‘body of water’ involved, and there is a puddle at the end of the driveway when it rains – how wonderful!

Jack Webb produced a series of ‘police procedurals’ for television [Dragnet, Adam-12], and they were boring, because he insisted that all of the rules and regulations be observed, as if that happened in the real world. The only time I followed all of the rules and regulations was when I was POed at a new order, and was protesting it. You can’t get anything done.

A patrol officer is sent and discovers a body, all s/he does is call a supervisor, and, if it is really gruesome or old, vomits [hopefully, outside so no evidence is contaminated], and waits for someone else to take over. It makes for a paragraph, not a book.

Come on, there are cat sitters and animal boarding facilities if they were really kindly old ladies.

Kryten, given the prominence of Grand Theft Auto why would games about homicidal little old ladies be surprising. I know I would never have accepted an invite to someone’s country estate when I lived in the UK. Someone was always getting murdered to provide a plot for a book.

Murder, She Wrote

There are also games bases on Agatha Christie’s books (a half dozen or so), including based upon the character Hercule Poirot (2 or 3). 😉 Just sayin… 😉 😆

Yes, I know… I have no life! 😛 😈

(Actually, I only know about them because my housemate loves these kind of games! She must have a hundred of them! I find them too easy generally, I usually finish them in a day. Some of them are enjoyable actually. I liked one game based upon the book “The Great Gatsby”. It was quite well narrated, and some of the puzzles were somewhat challenging.) 😉 🙂

– Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Thus why Jessica Fletcher doesn’t have a cat or dog, and neither did Miss Marple. It would have cramped their travel style too much, especially for Jessica Fletcher, who had more nieces than an army division has soldiers each and every one of whom needed visiting, usually accompanied by a dead body (I mean, the Fletcher family apparently attracts murderers the way a bug zapper light attracts bugs, you can’t have a Fletcher around without someone stumblin’ over a dead body!). How’s Jessica Fletcher gonna travel with a cat, and what’s the cat gonna be doing while she’s solving the mystery? So why clutter the story with a cat, then?!

Lillian Jackson Braun found the solution to that, which was to make the cat the center of the story. But so far only one of my stories has managed to work a dog into it in a way that not only works but is integral to the story, and that one was sorta a salute to Harlan Ellison’s classic “A Boy and His Dog” (another classic pet story, heh!). As for cats… pffft. Forget it. Cats are more interested in doing their own thing. Thus my problem with the “Cat Who” books, of which, remember, I did read a round half dozen or so over the years, but kept breaking out in guffaws over the notion of cats solving murders every time I thought about them and just quit reading them after a while.

– Badtux the Mechanics Penguin

Based on the literature, little old ladies, like Ms Fletcher and Miss Marple are obviously more involved than they let on. I think it’s the lack of a cat that makes them suspicious. They should at least own a budgie.

Yes, Badtux, a series of some type is essential to making a living with writing, because you have to develop a following who will spread your greatness by word of mouth.

The main problem with police procedurals is that if they were really accurate people would fall asleep in chapter two. No one is really prepared the boredom inherent in police work. Filling in forms, which is a major police activity, is not the stuff of stunning visuals. I know a number of officers who retired without ever taking there weapon from its holster. [In one case, when the guy retired they had to cut the holster off the weapon to unload it, because it was rusted in place.] There are a lot more people with a day’s worth of experience in 20 years, than 20 years’ worth of experience in a day, the cops who appear in books.

[Note: updated and corrected after an emergency DVD repair at my Mother’s eliminated any read-through and editing of the original.]

yes, i was a serious jessica fletcher groupie too, in case anybody was wondering. 😀