We have lost an extremely popular mystery author - Lilian Jackson Braun, the author of the best-selling "The Cat Who..." series has died. She was 97 years old.
Lilian Jackson Braun began writing her "The Cat Who..." mysteries back in the mid-1960s, but the series stopped after three novels, because, she said, the publisher wanted her to put more sex and violence into the books, something she was unwilling to do. She didn't return to mystery writing until persuaded to do so by her second husband, Earl Bettinger, in the late 1980s, and all of her later books include a dedication to him as "The husband who..."
Her books featured a newspaperman named Jim Qwilleran, but they were really about his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, who played major roles in the novels, often by cryptically calling Qwilleran's attention to some object or book that might be construed as a clue. Most of the later books are set in the fictional town of Pickax, which was said to be modeled on the real town of Bad Axe, Michigan, where the Bettingers lived until the mid-1980s.
In all, Lilian Jackson Braun
This is indeed a sorrowful loss.
Posted by: Alex Baugh | June 10, 2011 at 06:12 PM
I've read all twenty-nine books and agree with your critique. Quite a few years ago, I wrote to Ms. Braun to tell her how much I enjoyed her books, especially the characters and the town that seemed so real to me. I received a handwritten note from her, thanking me for writing and telling me how pleased she was that she had created a place that I wanted to visit again and again.
Posted by: Joan Kyler | June 11, 2011 at 07:57 AM
Alex and Joan, I agree - it's quite a loss. Over at the For Mystery Addicts (4MA) mail group on Yahoo, there were quite a few comments from long-time fans. When she was good, she was very good indeed.
Posted by: Les Blatt | June 14, 2011 at 07:12 PM