Review: Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss

I received an advanced review copy of this book from Melville House through Edelweiss.

My Review:
Have you ever wondered what your pet’s voice would sound like if it could talk?  Oh come on, I can’t be the only one!  Well, Roger, the talking cat in CAT OUT OF HELL, has a voice that sounds like Vincent Price.  He is also intelligent, well-read, well-traveled and immortal.

Roger has had a very interesting life and he begins to tell this story to a man named Wiggy.  Wiggy, whose sister Jo has mysteriously disappeared, has inherited Roger from his sister and discovers within a few days that Roger, a tabby cat, can actually talk.  And when he does talk he has a lot of things to say.

Roger is not the only talking cat in the story.  Roger’s long-time best friend, Captain, who is an enormous black cat, can also communicate with humans but, unlike Roger, Captain is evil and sinister.  What else would one expect from a gigantic talking, black cat!

The other main, human, character in the book is Alec whose wife has unexpectedly died.  Together Alec and Wiggy discover that Captain is part of an evil group of cats who are ruled by a Cat Master and have caused more than a few human deaths.  Can Alec, Wiggy and Roger team up and defeat Captain and the evil Cat Master before this satanic and sinister duo can do any more damage?

If you are thinking that the premise of this book is ridiculous, you are correct.  But the writing is so clever and funny that I thoroughly enjoyed every page.  CAT OUT OF HELL is a quick read that will give you lots of good belly laughs.  It will also make you wonder what your pets are really up to when you are not around.

About The Author:
Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women’s Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.