Cat out of Hell

By Lynne Truss
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Horror

At a very weird time, this seemed like an appropriately weird book to which to be listening. A dark comedy about talking cats with evil powers, capable of committing gruesome murders, set in the lovely historic city of Cambridge.

Who would have thought that such strange things could happen there, to say nothing of the plot’s library connections?

The main protagonist is a recently bereaved retired periodicals librarian, his late wife having also been a librarian at the same library (her connection to the cat machinations is revealed in due course, so I won’t plot spoil).

At the start of the book, Alec Charlesworth goes off for a short break to a quiet seaside town with his dog Watson, to be alone with his grief. For some unexplained reason, a former colleague has emailed Alec a file of documents and pictures, so he begins to read them to pass the time. The documents tell the strange story of a talking cat called Roger, the humans who have befriended him and a menacing black cat called Captain. Captain was formerly a close friend and mentor to Roger, both cats being possessed of the strange powers that nine-lives cats have (I’ll say no more…) Alec becomes enmeshed in Roger’s life story, as he gradually comes to believe what he reads and then searches out his former colleague to learn more.

This is an entertaining novel and a quick read (about five hours listening time); best suited for those who are not dedicated cat lovers, as cats really don’t come out if it very well. The audio version benefits from an excellent turn by Mike Grady, who voices cat characters with aplomb (think Vincent Price with fur and whiskers) and is quite good at humans too. The book doesn’t have a very taxing plot and it probably doesn’t make much sense if you stop to think about it. But once you get sucked into the idea that a cat can be erudite, charming, a lover of Wordsworth’s verse and a follower of Beelzebub, then you don’t worry about the details.

Staff Pick By
Chris