History Literature / TheCatWhoSeries

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never clarified where Moose County is actually supposed to be, other than that it's somewhat near the Great Lakes. The books never even mention which state it's in. The only description for its location is that it's "four hundred miles north of everywhere."

See also ''Literature/MidnightLouie'', a series by Carole Nelson Douglas that draws much influence from this one, featuring a hard-boiled feline private eye as a first-person narrator at times. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be remotely confused with]] ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', an entirely different sort of book by Creator/RobertAHeinlein.

* FranchiseZombie: The series continued for years despite overwhelming agreement that the quality of the novels had greatly declined, and many suspected [[ExecutiveMeddling publisher interference]].

See also ''Literature/MidnightLouie'', a series by Carole Nelson Douglas that draws much influence from this one, featuring a hard-boiled feline private eye as a first-person narrator at times. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be remotely confused with]] ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'', an entirely different sort of book by RobertAHeinlein.

** Polly's real name is [[AMidsummerNightsDream Hippolyta]], and she mentions that her "poor sister [[{{Hamlet}} Ophelia]]" had a rough time of it in school.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: An in-universe sort of variant. Qwill is frequently mentioned by other characters as bearing a strong resemblance to MarkTwain.

* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: To an extent, Qwill's summer home, a converted apple barn on the Klingenschoen property, which many characters compare with the Guggenheim Museum.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied to have been the case with the sibling lawyers who initially handled Qwill's inheritance; at the very least, the sister was a ClingyJealousGirl.

* CanonDiscontinuity: The 29th book in the series, ''The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers,'' was widely regarded as this by many fans who were outraged at the sudden and unexplained changes to the well-loved landscape of the stories.

* ConstantlyCurious: Baby in ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it led to her getting seriously injured, though she got better.]]

* DevelopmentHell: ''The Cat Who Smelled Smoke'', the planned 35th installment (including special projects) in the series. Originally scheduled for 2008, then 2009, then canceled.

* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Police Chief Andrew Brody, like many characters in the series, is of Scottish descent and is known to give stirring bagpipe performances at public events, weddings, and [[AlwaysMurder funerals]].

* TheHyena: Celia Robinson, who has a loud, musical laugh and laughs even at Qwilleran's mildest quips. In ''The Cat Who Blew the Whistle'', Qwilleran introduces to her the idea of "fine-tuning" her laugh.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Applying to both Qwill and Koko. Qwill's pepper-and-salt mustache bristles occasionally, and he sees it as a sign of raw intuition picking up on something suspicious. Koko at times ''appears'' to be psychic, but it's always left ambiguous as to whether or not his catty antics are just what they seem to be or not. At least, Qwilleran seems to find it ambiguous, but to the reader it's a bit more obvious that there's something magic about it. If a cat lets out a chilling howl once at the exact time of a suspicious death that later turns out to be murder, that may be a coincidence. If said cat repeatedly does this, then it can no longer be written off as just coincidence, especially combined with some of the other things Koko does. Though on the "mundane" side of the argument is the fact that Qwill rarely manages to predict anything from Koko's clues and the explanation of how Koko solves the mystery usually comes as Qwill tries to fit in Koko's behaviour with the solution he already knows.
** A lesser example is Mildred Hanstable Riker's Tarot readings. They are vague enough that there's no proof Mildred can predict the future but almost always prove accurate.

* PurpleIsPowerful: The character Euphonia Gage believed this and wore a lot of purple.
* PyramidPower: In ''The Cat Who Blew the Whistle'', Elizabeth Hart is big on the idea of pyramid power. Unannounced, she and her boyfriend pop over to the Qwilleran's apple barn and set up a makeshift portable pyramid. After they leave, Koko makes his way to the very center of the pyramid and there is a blackout across all of Pickax that doesn't stop until he exits the pyramid.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Qwill encounters two of these in the course of the series. [[spoiler:One he meets when taking a vacation to nearby Potato Mountain. The other, who killed not only her father but men who reminded her of her father, is revealed to be a victim of ParentalIncest, and has a SplitPersonality to boot.]]

* StalkerWithACrush: Qwill's one-time love interest, [[spoiler:Melinda Goodwinter]], who goes so far as to try to have his serious girlfriend murdered in an attempt to get him back.

**** In ''The Cat Who Turned On and Off'', a character travels by plane to Cleveland, thus also ruling it out as the setting.

* DrowningMySorrows: Qwill, prior to the start of the series, although he later swears off alcohol.

* GoshHornet: Kills [[spoiler:the murderer]] in ''The Cat Who Said Cheese''.

* SpyFiction: Played with using the Celia Robinson character, who does missions for Qwilleran ("The Chief") as his "[[JamesBond Secret Agent 13 1/2]]."

*** A now-defunct fan forum once speculated that the city in the first few books is likely Detroit, but a brief mention of Michigan as a different location in ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'' would seem to refute this theory (along with similar mentions of Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh). Additionally, one character is mentioned to be travelling through Pittsburgh while driving to New York, indicating that the unnamed city must be further west.

* LastDisrespects: ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts'' frequently refers to the funeral of Efraim Goodwinter, who had a record number of mourners accompanying the funeral procession, but the vast majority are there to celebrate his death, Efraim being one of the most hated men in town after indirectly causing the deaths of 42 miners.

** A lesser example is Mildred Hanstable's Tarot readings. They are vague enough that there's no proof Mildred can predict the future but almost always prove accurate.

* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Both Qwilleran and Polly are big Shakespeare buffs, and the series includes everything from minor Shakespeare references to entire Shakespeare plays being performed by the Pickax Theatre Club.

* StockYuck: Qwill. Loathes turnips and doesn't hesitate to say so-was convinced that 'something underhanded' had been done to make a dish containing turnips palatable. In another case, he writes in his "Qwill Pen" column about all of the different ways in which turnips are awful and in return receives a giant turnip grown by one of his readers. First, though, the package has to be inspected by the bomb squad because there has recently been a bombing in the community and the package is considered suspicious.

** It's also never clear which city the first four books are set in; rather unusually for newspapers, neither the paper Qwill works for ''The Daily Fluxion'', nor its rival, ''The Morning Rampage'', include the name of the city.

* SpyFiction: Played with using the Celia Robinson character, who does missions for Qwilleran ("The Chief") as his "[[JamesBond Secret Agent 007 1/2]]."

See also ''Literature/MidnightLouie'', a series by Carole Nelson Douglas that draws much influence from this one, featuring a hard-boiled feline private eye as a first-person narrator at times.

* SdrawkcabName: In the first book, [[spoiler: Scrano is O. Narx]]

* BonnieScotland: Many of the characters are of Scottish descent, and in one book, they take a group trip to Scotland.

* PyramidPower: In ''[[TheCatWhoSeries The Cat Who Blew the Whistle]]'', Elizabeth Hart is big on the idea of pyramid power. Unannounced, she and her boyfriend pop over to the Qwilleran's apple barn and set up a makeshift portable pyramid. After they leave, Koko makes his way to the very center of the pyramid and there is a blackout across all of Pickax that doesn't stop until he exits the pyramid.