The Cat Looked Back by Louise Carson

Crime doesn’t pay but maybe crime fiction does? Murder mysteries are one of the top sellers in Canada, along with sci-fi. The Cat Looked Back by Louise Carson is categorically a mystery, but this is ultra-low stakes and a way to pass the time, not a thriller or suspense. That a murder may have occurred doesn’t come up early or preoccupy the narrator or text. Like the 1990s series The Cat Who by Lilian Jackson Braun, the novel is about sinking into a context. Whereas Braun may devote a book to heraldry and Scottish kilt customs, or what it takes to make a cupcake business, The Cat Looked Back is more general, observing the ambiance of quietude on the white edge of the Oka crisis.

This cozy murder series is in its sixth instalment. The story has in part returned to the Quebec village of 5000 people, Lovering, where most people are related, even if a few generations removed. There’s a lot of time spent on genealogical connections that I found distracting. As with The Last Unsuitable Man by Louise Carson (Signature, 2022), a character is writing a novel, making it a little meta about process, including the wry commentary of perils of using people in your actual life as character models.

The A plot of The Cat Looked Back starts in the aftermath of happiness, the upswing of three pairs of new relationships, including reminiscing over a garden wedding from the point of view of the house cleaner. The B plot is a travelogue of the house owner, as she and her fellow travel the U.K. Both plots are set back in time— are you, reader, old enough to remember those dingy dungeons of smoke and bubble gummed tables of internet cafes? The inclusion of the B plot presumably keeps readers connected with the previous narrator of past novels in the series while providing peppy snapshots that reset the brain stem which may be troubled by the A plot with its characters in conflict.

Because there isn’t any fallout for the main character pottering around, and observing people, there isn’t any tension ratcheting. Hence, the book makes for a more leisurely read than say, a Louise Penny novel which also seeks to spotlight Quebec cuisine, genial local businesses and people’s deep inner life. There are no clues of whodunit. There is no impact on the coterie of characters. It’s offscreen what the motivations and consequences of the death are. There are however calming scenes for foodies describing how to cook certain dishes (indexed at the back).

It’s funny, for this reader, throw in vampires and werewolves, and I can suspend disbelief for ghost characters. Where it is like Animal Farm and all animals talk, I can suspend disbelief for the point of view of non-human characters, but given only one animal with an inner monologue, it clogs my filters. As it falls on me, I feel too strongly the hand of the writer adding back story. For that reason let me add a caveat: Some sections of the novel are fronted with a segment from the point of view of a cat, often interacting with a ghost. If you aren’t a fan of ghosts or animal narrators, or sustained pages of italics, this might not be for you, or you could skip these italicized mini-sections.

The A plot narrator is at an emotional remove from everyone. She needs to be unflappable and she nearly gets “flapped” once, primly bailing from what could be a romantic moment. I can’t speak to whether this is part of a transformation trajectory over the series to come.

It may be social commentary that the cats have more explicit longing, love, and expectations than any human expresses. I mull the implications, truth and weight of that. The loose story leaves room for omissions to ponder. After all, the title does suggest it was always about the cats and their memoir as it related to contact with humans. To pivot the importance of a story to decentralize humans might be what our world needs to heal itself from environmental irresponsibility. Watching what’s happening in the peripheral vision to not-us and caring more about that.

At the risk of a spoiler, if you like cliffhangers, and dislike, Happily Ever After, this might have too much resolution for you. If comfort is your dish, you’ll dig it.

Born in Montreal and raised in Hudson, Quebec, Louise Carson studied music in Montreal and Toronto, played jazz piano and sang in the chorus of the Canadian Opera Company. Carson has published fifteen books: Rope, a blend of poetry and prose; Mermaid Road, a lyrical novella; A Clearing, a collection of poetry; Executor, a mystery set in China and Toronto; Dog Poems, a collection of poetry; The Last Unsuitable Man, a thriller set in the Sunshine Coast; her historical fiction Deasil Widdy series: In Which, Measured, and Third Circle; and her Maples Mysteries series: The Cat Among Us, The Cat Vanishes, The Cat Between, The Cat Possessed, A Clutter of Cats, and The Cat Looked Back.

She lives in St-Lazare, Quebec, where she writes, teaches music and gardens.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signature Editions; 1st edition (Sept. 1 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1773241257
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1773241258

Pearl Pirie

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Pearl Pirie's latest is we astronauts (Pinhole Press, 2025). Pirie’s 4th poetry collection is footlights (Radiant Press, 2020). rain’s small gestures(Apt 9 Press, 2021) won the 2022 Nelson Ball Prize. www.pearlpirie.com and patreon.com/pearlpiriepoet