History Literature / TheCatWhoSeries

* FinancialAbuse: One of the prominent families in Moose County is said to control their adult children by "giving [the kids] a taste for luxuries but keeping them poor."

* NonIdleRich: Continuing in this role, Qwill helps to found a more full-featured newspaper in his new hometown of Pickaxe, whose newspaper was previously stuck in the 19th century.

* AppealToWorseProblems: One time when Koko and Yum-Yum turn up their noses at the food he gives them, Qwill makes some reference to there being cats in another country that don't know where their next mouse is coming from. It makes no difference whatsoever.

* CozyMystery: After four books set in the city, the rest developed into Cozies, as Qwill remains an amateur but moves into a small town where everybody knows everybody else.

* GenderScoff: The lead character James Mackintosh Qwilleran extends this to a species scoff, shouting "Cats!" when his Siamese Koko or Yum-Yum behave in ways that frustrate him.

* IAmNotWeasel: In ''The Cat Who Blew the Whistle'', the guy working on Polly Duncan's house refers to Koko as a weasel a couple of times. There are also a couple other instances in which Koko and Yum-Yum are mistaken for animals other than cats, due to the somewhat unusual appearance of Siamese in comparison with the types of cats people are used to, particularly at a distance.

* ExitPursuedByABear: In ''The Cat Who Said Cheese'', [[spoiler: an abusive ex-husband]] tracks [[spoiler: his ex-wife]] to Moose County, [[spoiler: using the fact that back in the navy he saved a shipmate's life (said shipmate still suffered brain damag)e as leverage to coerce the local, now a beekeeper into becoming an accessory to the bombing of said frightened ex's hotel room. When he comes back to try and cover his tracks and finish the job -- the intended target was out and about but someone else died -- the beekeeper inadvertently gives him a wool blanket and]] the bees swarm [[spoiler: the murderer]], who is found dead the next morning.

* GreasySpoon: Lois's Luncheonette

* 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. However, 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 after the fact with the solution he already knows.

* NonIdleRich: When Qwilleran first inherits his billions, he is horrified because he has never needed a great amount of possessions to be happy and loathes the idea of living in a huge mansion with servants. He quickly establishes the Klingenschoen Foundation to dispose of the vast majority of the unwanted fortune; the K-Fund provides grants for small businesses and locals in need. Qwill also later helps to found a more full-featured newspaper in his new hometown of Pickaxe, whose newspaper was previously stuck in the 19th century.

* TwinSwitch: A dark example in one book, when the EvilTwin [[spoiler: murders his identical twin brother and then takes his place]].
* UnclePennybags: Qwill takes on many of the characteristics after becoming heir to the Klingenschoen money. He even establishes a charity foundation to distribute the money so that it improves the county.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never clarified where Moose County is actually supposed to be, other than that it's definitely somewhere in the United States (as a minor subplot in ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' involves an outdated American flag on display) and 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".

* OnOneCondition: When his Aunt Fanny dies in ''The Cat Who Played Brahms'', Qwill finds he can only inherit the Klingenschoen money if he remains a resident of Moose County for five years. Leaving sooner than that would mean that the money would be turned over to a syndicate in New Jersey. "Leaving" also includes his death, which makes him a potential target. When he makes it to the five-year benchmark, he throws a celebration.

* SamusIsAGirl: In ''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue'', Polly is jealous when she sees Qwill out with a young woman on the night he told her he was having dinner with "the architect from Cincinnati". Qwill informs her that the young woman ''was'' the architect from Cincinnati, and jokingly scolds her for "assuming the profession was limited to men". To be fair to Polly, though, (a) Qwill knew that she was assuming that the architect was a man, and he didn't correct her, and (b) the architect was one of his ex-girlfriends.

* ExitPursuedByABear: In ''The Cat Who Said Cheese'', [[spoiler: the murderer is killed by his accomplice-by-coercion's bees]].

* BrotherSisterIncest: Implied to be the case with the sibling lawyers who initially handle Qwill's inheritance; at the very least, the sister is a ClingyJealousGirl.

* HonoraryUncle: Qwill considers himself to be something like this to Liz Hart, whom he meets when he saves her life on Breakfast Island after she is bitten by a deadly snake. A later book notes that because of that connection, he takes a sort of "godfatherly interest" in the young woman's well-being and activities. [[spoiler:When she dies in a car accident, he is deeply saddened.]]

* SelfMadeOrphan: Qwill encounters two of these in the course of the series. [[spoiler:One is a young woman he meets when taking a vacation to nearby Potato Mountain, who had her father killed so she could collect her inheritance. 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; given these revelations, she's a much more sympathetic example than the former.]]

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

* TwinSwitch: A dark example in one book, when the EvilTwin [[spoiler:murders his identical twin brother and then takes his place]].
* UnclePennybags: Qwill takes on many of the characteristics after becoming heir to the Klingenschoen money. He even establishes a charity foundation to distribute the money so that it improves the county.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never clarified where Moose County is actually supposed to be, other than that it's definitely somewhere in the United States (as a minor subplot in one installment involves an outdated American flag on display) and 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".
** While the first four books are suggested to take place in some major city, we never learn which one. 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.

* UndercoverCopReveal: The last chapter casually reveals that [[spoiler:Hollis Prantz, one of the Junktown dealers]], is actually an undercover officer from Narcotics and was investigating a heroin ring in the area.

* FirstGirlWins: To a small extent. In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill is reunited with his first love, [[MeaningfulName Joy]]; he admits that every woman he's ever been involved with since her, including his ex-wife, has reminded him of her. [[spoiler:After she's murdered, he finally moves on.]]

* ConstantlyCurious: Baby, the little girl in ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it leads to her getting seriously injured, though she gets better.]]

* MeaningfulFuneral: It's frequently mentioned that the funeral of Ephraim Goodwinter, the patriarch of the well-to-do Goodwinter family, was extremely large and of great significance to the people of Moose County. Of course, since most of the people in Moose County ''hated'' him, it was meaningful for the wrong sort of reason. (It's also implied in one book that [[spoiler:he might not have actually been dead at the time of his funeral; Qwill finds evidence of a sort of escape hatch by which he might have evaded the circumstances of his death.]])

* BeeAfraid: Kills [[spoiler:the murderer]] in ''The Cat Who Said Cheese''.
* ExitPursuedByABear: In ''The Cat Who Said Cheese'', [[spoiler:the murderer is killed by his accomplice-by-coercion's bees]].

* BurnBabyBurn: In book 22 (''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank''), Qwilleran discovers a series of letters from his mother to his "Aunt" Fanny, and reads them. At the end, he discovers the truth about what happened to his DisappearedDad. [[spoiler:In a desperate act to get money for his family, the elder Qwilleran was shot while trying to rob a bank.]] Qwill angrily throws the letters into the fireplace, declaring that "The past is dead!"

* BilingualBonus: Qwill and Polly always end their phone conversations with ''"à bientôt."''

* FictionalDocument: The ''Moose County Something'' and its predecessor, the ''Pickaxe Picayune''; also ''City of Brotherly Crime,'' the book Qwill wrote when he was younger.

** Honorary Aunt: Qwill refers to Fanny Klingenschoen as his "Aunt Fanny," but they weren't related at all; she was his mother's best friend and considered him her godson.

* IllGirl: Qwill's ex-wife is indicated to be one of these; in an early book, Arch snipes at him about having sent her money and he protests, pointing out that she's in poor health. A later book reveals that she dies in a sanitarium.

* NoNameGiven: We never learn the name of Qwill's ex-wife.

* RunningGag: In the early books, all of Qwill's editors misspell his name with a "q-u" instead of his actual "q-w." This occasionally resurfaces in later installments.

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

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never clarified where Moose County is actually supposed to be, other than that it's definitely somewhere in the United States (as a minor subplot in one installment involves an outdated American flag on display) and 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."

* CausticCritic: In the original book, ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'', the art critic Mountclemens is very much this. He has managed to offend just about everyone on the art scene in town except for a select few artists he's propping up, but is kept because his columns draw huge readership. His targets include a wealthy donor whose work he describes as "drugstore art." Of a sweet old butcher called "Uncle Waldo," he comments that "age is no substitute for talent." He also targets private collectors who are "less dedicated to art preservation than tax avoidance." Even his full name, George Bonifield Mountclemens III, pisses off some people, as it must be set line-by-line in the type on his byline and he insists on no abbreviations.[[note]]The book was written in the 1960s when all of this still had to be done by hand.[[/note]]

* SamusIsAGirl: In ''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue'', Polly is jealous when she sees Qwill out with a young woman on the night he told her he was having dinner with "the architect from Cincinnati." Qwill informs her that the young woman ''was'' the architect from Cincinnati, and jokingly scolds her for "assuming the profession was limited to men." To be fair to Polly, though, (a) Qwill knew that she was assuming that the architect was a man, and he didn't correct her, and (b) the architect was one of his ex-girlfriends.

* GraveHumor: In ''The Cat Who Sang for the Birds'', Qwilleran goes exploring in a cemetery with a knowledgeable local and discovers a number of gravestones that have this. Among these is one described as "the ultimate his and hers." One reads "Shot by her dear husband," and the other next to it announces that he was "Hanged for killing his dear wife."

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

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

* BlatantLies: Fanny Klingenschoen told many of them, but the biggest would have to be the various fibs she told about how to get into her will (e.g. she would leave money to anyone who was named after her). When she dies and leaves everything to Qwill, the locals are rather understandably angry until he sets up the foundation that disperses the money.

* BurnBabyBurn: In book 22 (''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank''), Qwilleran discovers a series of letters from his mother to his "Aunt" Fanny, and reads them. At the end, he discovers the truth about what happened to his DisappearedDad. [[spoiler:In a desperate act to get money for his family, the elder Qwilleran was shot while trying to rob a bank.]] Qwill angrily throws the letters into the fireplace, declaring that "The past is dead!"

* CanonDiscontinuity: The 29th book in the series, ''The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers,'' is widely regarded as this by many fans who were outraged at the sudden and unexplained changes to the well-loved landscape of the stories.
* CausticCritic: In the original book, ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'', the art critic Mountclemens is very much this. He has managed to offend just about everyone on the art scene in town except for a select few artists he's propping up, but is kept because his columns draw huge readership. His targets include a wealthy donor whose work he describes as "drugstore art." Of a sweet old butcher called "Uncle Waldo," he comments that "age is no substitute for talent." He also targets private collectors who are "less dedicated to art preservation than tax avoidance." Even his full name, George Bonifield Mountclemens III, pisses off some people, as it must be set line-by-line in the type on his byline and he insists on no abbreviations.[[note]]The book was written in the 1960s when all of this still had to be done by hand.[[/note]]

* CloudCuckooLanguage: Nino, in the first book. {{Lampshaded}}: "He even speaks a language of his own, but we don't expect conformity of a genius, do we?"
* ConstantlyCurious: Baby, the little girl in ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it leads to her getting seriously injured, though she gets better.]]

* DisappearedDad: Qwill's father was out of his life early on. ''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank'' eventually reveals how he died, and Qwill is rather furious when he discovers the truth.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Inverted in ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'', where it's an ''innocent'', the artist Nino, who's murdered when he's pushed off a stepladder and falls twenty-six feet onto a concrete floor.

* DrivenToSuicide: The last death in ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' is made to look like one, until the very end when Qwill realizes [[spoiler: Penelope Goodwinter really did commit suicide, but made it look like her brother Alexander and their cohort Birch Tree murdered her. It's then implied Alexander commits suicide as well by crashing a plane to get out of being arrested for his role in the deaths of Daisy and Della Mull and Tiffany Trotter.]]

* ExitPursuedByABear: In ''The Cat Who Said Cheese'', [[spoiler:the murderer is killed by his accomplice-by-coercion's bees]].
* FurnaceBodyDisposal: In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill learns that the murder victim's body was disposed of in a potter's kiln. [[spoiler: It's what created the red "living glaze" on the pots.]]

* FirstGirlWins: To a small extent. In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill is reunited with his first love, [[MeaningfulName Joy]]; he admits that every woman he's ever been involved with since her, including his ex-wife, has reminded him of her. [[spoiler:After she's murdered, he finally moves on.]]

* GraveHumor: In ''The Cat Who Sang for the Birds'', Qwilleran goes exploring in a cemetery with a knowledgeable local and discovers a number of gravestones that have this. Among these is one described as "the ultimate his and hers." One reads "Shot by her dear husband," and the other next to it announces that he was "Hanged for killing his dear wife."

* IAmNotWeasel: In ''The Cat Who Blew the Whistle'', the guy working on Polly Duncan's house refers to Koko as a weasel a couple of times. There are also a couple other instances in which Koko and Yum-Yum are mistaken for animals other than cats, due to the somewhat unusual appearance of Siamese in comparison with the types of cats people are used to, particularly at a distance.

* InMediasRes: ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'', in which Qwilleran moves to Moose County, opens with a scene in which Qwilleran awakes in a hospital following a bad bicycle wreck with a case of EasyAmnesia that is quickly resolved. Most of the remainder of the book depicts the events that eventually led up to this.
* KeyUnderTheDoormat: When Qwill is staying in the Klingenschoen cabin in Mooseville in ''The Cat Who Went Underground'', he notes at one point that a spare key is hidden in a hollow log at the bottom of the log rack on the porch. When considering other places that someone might look for a key (to get in and feed his cats, if something happens to him), he thinks of obvious places like on top of the doorframe or under the doormat.

* LastDisrespects: ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts'' frequently refers to the funeral of Ephraim Goodwinter, who had a record number of mourners accompanying the funeral procession; but the vast majority were there to ''celebrate'' his death, since Ephraim was one of the most hated men in town after indirectly causing the deaths of 42 miners. (See MeaningfulFuneral, below.)

* MallSanta: In ''The Cat Who Went Into the Closet'', Qwilleran is drafted into being the Santa Claus of the small town of Pickaxe. He takes things fairly well, but panics when he learns that he's not done because he's still required to do lap-sitting.
-->'''Qwilleran''': M-er-r-y Christmas! [[IsThisThingStillOn Get me outta here! How do I get down? I'm not going back down that stupid ladder!]]

* ManOfAThousandVoices: Jim Qwilleran is an in-universe example. In ''The Cat Who Went Into the Closet'', he creates a play with a dramatic radio re-enactment based on a historical fire which tore through the area. Although radio didn't exist at the time, attendees are asked to imagine that it did. Using historical newspaper accounts, he creates a script, voices the radio announcer, and splices in interviews by doing of recordings of himself in various voices, including an old farmer, an Irish brogue, and much more.

* MeaningfulFuneral: It's frequently mentioned that the funeral of Ephraim Goodwinter, the patriarch of the well-to-do Goodwinter family, was extremely large and of great significance to the people of Moose County. Of course, since most of the people in Moose County ''hated'' him, it was meaningful for the wrong sort of reason. (It's also implied in one book that [[spoiler:he might not have actually been dead at the time of his funeral; Qwill finds evidence of a sort of escape hatch by which he might have evaded the circumstances of his death.]])

* NeverFoundTheBody: The driving plot of ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' involves Qwill trying to figure out what happened to Daisy Mull, who disappeared five years earlier, after he gets confirmation that one of the supposed messages she sent indicating she was leaving was a forgery. [[spoiler: She was killed by Birch Tree and her body was hidden by a mine collapse.]]

* NoNameGiven: We never learn the name of Qwill's ex-wife, nor the real name of the child called Baby in ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts''.

* OnOneCondition:
** In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', when Qwill learns the origins of Maus Haus, he finds it was a result of this trope. Hugh Penniman conceived the building as an arts center and, in his will, said that under its new owner, it ''must'' continue to serve the arts. After Penniman's sons declined it based on the condition, it passed to Hugh's niece and subsequently to her husband, Hugh's nephew-in-law Robert Maus, who solved this by renting the studios to gourmets (gastronomy being considered an art by its practitioner) and reactivating the old pottery operation. However, as demonstrated in the start of ''The Cat Who Played Brahms'', the clause didn't forbid him from eventually selling the property to a developer who wanted to tear it down and build a high-rise apartment on the spot.
** When his Aunt Fanny dies in ''The Cat Who Played Brahms'', Qwill finds he can only inherit the Klingenschoen money if he remains a resident of Moose County for five years. Leaving sooner than that would mean that the money would be turned over to a syndicate in New Jersey. "Leaving" also includes his death, which makes him a potential target. When he makes it to the five-year benchmark, he throws a celebration.

* 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 Pickaxe that doesn't stop until he exits the pyramid.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Literally, in ''The Cat Who Lived High'', when the vacationing Qwill's car is stolen and the driver turns up dead. The local law enforcement where the car is found, who don't know Qwill, assume the dead man is the owner of the car and issue an incorrect report. While most of Moose County is thrown into deep mourning, Arch goes to where Qwill is staying to get the cats -- and almost has a heart attack when he finds Qwill sitting there.

* SamusIsAGirl: In ''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue'', Polly is jealous when she sees Qwill out with a young woman on the night he told her he was having dinner with "the architect from Cincinnati." Qwill informs her that the young woman ''was'' the architect from Cincinnati, and jokingly scolds her for "assuming the profession was limited to men." To be fair to Polly, though, (a) Qwill knew that she was assuming that the architect was a man, and he didn't correct her, and (b) the architect was one of his ex-girlfriends.
* SantaClaus: In ''The Cat Who Went Into the Closet'', Qwill agrees to take on the role of town Santa Claus in the Pickaxe Christmas parade, but very nearly bolts when informed only after the parade itself is over that he's expected at the courthouse for lap-sitting, having already endured a bumpy dogsled ride through bitter cold weather, followed by a perilous ladder-climb.
-->'''Qwill''': Lap-sitting? What the devil is that?
-->'''Wilfred''': They built a gingerbread house for you in front of the courthouse, and the kids sit on your lap and have their pictures taken.
-->'''Qwill''': Oh, no, they don't! I refuse flatly! Enough is enough!
-->'''Wilfred''': Mr. Qwilleran, sir, you gotta!
* SdrawkcabAlias: In the first book, [[spoiler: Scrano is O. Narx]]

*** 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 (while in the same book, Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh are similarly ruled out). Additionally, one character is mentioned to be travelling through Pittsburgh while driving to New York, indicating that the unnamed city must be further west.

* WidowWoman: Polly Duncan, whose firefighter husband was killed in the line of duty less than a year after they married. This was at least fifteen years before she meets Qwill; she never remarried, nor even entered another serious relationship prior to meeting him. Judging by the way she talks about him on one of her early dates with Qwill, [[BrokenBird there's a good reason for this]], but her relationship with Qwill does help her to finally heal. This could also be considered an explanation for her GreenEyedMonster tendencies.

* FurnaceBodyDisposal: In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill learns that the murder victim's body was disposed of in a potter's kiln.

** In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', when Qwill learns the origins of Maus Haus, he finds it was a result of this trope. Hugh Penniman conceived the building as an arts center and, in his will, said that under its new owner, it ''must'' continue to serve the arts. After Penniman's sons declined it based on the condition, it passed to Hugh's niece and subsequently to her husband, Hugh's nephew-in-law Robert Maus, who solved this by renting the studios to gourmets (gastronomy being considered an art by its practitioner) and reactivating the old pottery operation.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Literally, in one book, when the vacationing Qwill's car is stolen and the driver turns up dead. The local law enforcement where the car is found, who don't know Qwill, assume the dead man is the owner of the car and issue an incorrect report. While most of Moose County is thrown into deep mourning, Arch goes to where Qwill is staying to get the cats -- and almost has a heart attack when he finds Qwill sitting there.

* OnOneCondition: Qwill can only inherit the Klingenschoen money if he remains a resident of Moose County for five years. Leaving sooner than that would mean that the money would be turned over to a syndicate in New Jersey. "Leaving" also includes his death, which makes him a potential target. When he makes it to the five-year benchmark, he throws a celebration.

* DisappearedDad: See BurnBabyBurn, above.

* DivorceAssetsConflict: Overlaps with KickTheDog. Arch Riker, Qwill's lifelong best friend, is mentioned to be fond of antique tin, and at one time had a sizable collection, which his first wife managed to get in their divorce settlement. She promptly opened her own shop - "Tin 'n Stuff" - to sell it.

** James Mackintosh Qwilleran had his name legally changed. Few characters - possibly none other than Arch Riker - know that his birth name was ''Merlin'' James Qwilleran.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Literally, in one book, when the vacationing Qwill's car is stolen and the driver turns up dead. The local law enforcement where the car is found, who don't know Qwill, assume the dead man is the owner of the car and issue an incorrect report. While most of Moose County is thrown into deep mourning, Arch goes to where Qwill is staying to get the cats - and almost has a heart attack when he finds Qwill sitting there.

* SelfDeprecatingHumor: The ''Pickaxe Picayune'', Moose County's newspaper when Qwill comes to town, falls into this. To call something ''picayune'' means to say that it is trivial or has very little worth, so the paper's name is essentially claiming that the news it reports is unimportant - or that the newspaper ''itself'' is unimportant. Or both.

* CausticCritic: In the original book, ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'', the art critic Mountclemens is very much this. He has managed to offend just about everyone on the art scene in town except for a select few artists he's propping up, but is kept because his columns draw huge readership. His targets include a wealthy donor whose art he described as "drugstore art." Of a sweet old butcher called "Uncle Waldo," he comments that "age is no substitute for talent." He also targets private collectors who are "less dedicated to art preservation than tax avoidance." Even his full name, George Bonifield Mountclemens III, pisses some off, as it must be set line-by-line in the type on his byline and he insists on no abbreviations.[[note]]The book was written in the 1960s when all of this still had to be done by hand.[[/note]]

* GraveHumor: In ''The Cat Who Sang for the Birds'', Qwilleran goes exploring in a cemetery with a knowledgeable local and discovers a number of gravestones that have this. Among these is one described as "the ultimate his and hers." One reads "Shot by her dear husband," the other next to it reading "Hanged for killing his dear wife."

* NeverFoundTheBody: The driving plot of ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' involves Qwill trying to figure out what happened to Daisy Mull, who disappeared five years ago, after he gets confirmation that one of the supposed messages she sent indicating she was leaving was a forgery. [[spoiler: She was killed by Birch Tree and her body was hidden by a mine collapse.]]

----

----

* CloudCuckooLanguage: Nino. {{Lampshaded}}: "He even speaks a language of his own, but we don't expect conformity of a genius, do we?"
* ConstantlyCurious: Baby in ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it leads to her getting seriously injured, though she gets better.]]

* GreenEyedMonster: Jealousy is described as Polly Duncan's primary flaw. Once Qwilleran starts dating her, he is wholly committed to her. This doesn't stop Polly, however, from being jealous of very nearly any other woman that he spends time with, or expresses an interest in him. (It also doesn't stop her from [[DoubleStandard occasionally going out with other men]].)

* HonoraryUncle: Qwill considers himself to be something like this to Liz Hart, whom he meets when he saves her life on Breakfast Island after she was bitten by a deadly snake. A later book notes that because of that connection, he takes a sort of "godfatherly interest" in the young woman's well-being and activities. [[spoiler:When she dies in a car accident, he is deeply saddened.]]

* MeaningfulFuneral: It's frequently mentioned that the funeral of Ephraim Goodwinter, the patriarch of the well-to-do Goodwinter family, was extremely large and of great significance to the people of Moose County. Of course, since most of the people in Moose County ''hated'' him, it was meaningful for the wrong sort of reason.

* NeverFoundTheBody: The driving plot of ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' involves Qwill trying to figure out what happened to Daisy Mull, who disappeared five years ago, after he gets confirmation one the supposed messages she sent indicating she was leaving was a forgery. [[spoiler: She was killed by Birch Tree and her body was hidden by a mine collapse.]]

* OnOneCondition: Qwill can only inherit the Klingenschoen money if he remains a resident of Moose County for five years. Leaving sooner than that would mean that the money would be turned over to a syndicate in New Jersey. "Leaving" also includes his death, which makes him a potential target.
* PetTheDog: Qwill engages in this as frequently as circumstances allow. If he likes someone, he will go to great lengths to contribute to their happiness and well-being. One example: after the death of Junior Goodwinter's father, his mother auctions off practically everything they own, including a family heirloom desk which had been promised to Junior. Qwill defiantly outbids every challenger in order to purchase the desk and give to Junior as a wedding gift when he marries his sweetheart Jodie.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Literally, in one book, when the vacationing Qwill's car is stolen and the driver turns up dead. The local law enforcement where the car is found, who don't know Qwill, assume the dead man is the owner of the car and issue an incorrect report. While most of Moose County is thrown into deep mourning, Arch goes to where Qwill is staying to get the cats and almost has a heart attack when he finds Qwill sitting there.

* TwinSwitch: A dark example in one book, when one brother [[spoiler:murders his identical twin and then takes his place]].

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: It's never clarified where Moose County is actually supposed to be, other than that it's somewhat near the Great Lakes, and that it's definitely somewhere in the United States, as a minor subplot in one installment involves an outdated American flag on display. 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."

*** A mention of a character hiding out in Duluth (implying that it's a nearby "big place" that one could disappear into), plus the similar weather and proximity to the Great Lakes, could indicate northern Minnesota as Moose County's location.
* WidowWoman: Polly Duncan, whose firefighter husband was killed in the line of duty less than a year after they married. This was at least fifteen years before she meets Qwill; she never remarried, nor even entered another serious relationship prior to meeting him.

* FirstGirlWins: To a small extent. In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill is reunited with his first love, Joy; he admits that every woman he's ever been involved with since her, including his ex-wife, has reminded him of her. [[spoiler:After she's murdered, he finally moves on.]]

* [[HonoraryUncle Honorary Aunt]]: Qwill refers to Fanny Klingenschoen as his "Aunt Fanny," but they weren't related at all; she was his mother's best friend and considered him her godson.

* MeaningfulFuneral: It's frequently mentioned that the funeral of Ephraim Goodwinter, the patriarch of the well-to-do Goodwinter family, was extremely large and of great significance to the people of Moose County. Of course, since most of the people in Moose County kind of ''hated'' him, it was meaningful for the wrong sort of reason.

** [[spoiler: Harvey Fitch]] may qualify as well. He didn't mean to kill his parents, but they both died as a direct result of his actions.

*** A mention of a character hiding out in Duluth (implying that it's a nearby "big place" that one could disappear into), plus the similar weather and proximity to the Great Lakes, could indicate northern Minnesota as Moose County's location.

The series began in the late 1960s, but after three books, there was an 18 year break before any more titles were published, ending when Braun's husband Earl Bettinger read the original stories and encouraged her to give it another try. Since then, future books in the series have been dedicated to "Earl Bettinger, The Husband Who..." The final book in the series, ''The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers'', was published in 2007. Another installment, ''The Cat Who Smelled Smoke'', was scheduled for 2008 and later 2009, but then canceled by the publisher. Born in 1913, author Lilian Jackson Braun was nearly 100 years old and her advanced age prevented her from completing the book. [[AuthorExistenceFailure She passed away in 2011, leaving the series unfinished.]]

* BilingualBonus: Qwill and Polly always end their phone conversations with "à bientôt."

* BurnBabyBurn: In book 22 (''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank''), Qwilleran discovers a series of letters from his mother to his "Aunt" Fanny, and reads them. At the end, he discovers the truth about what happened to his father. [[spoiler:In a desperate act to get money for his family, the elder Qwilleran was shot while trying to rob a bank.]] Qwill angrily throws the letters into the fireplace, declaring that "The past is dead!"

* DisappearedDad: Qwill knows very little about his father, who died while his mother was pregnant. In book #22, he learns what happened. [[spoiler:His father, an out-of-work actor with a penchant for alcohol, was shot by police officers while committing a robbery.]]

* BurnBabyBurn: In book 22 (''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank''), Qwilleran discovers a series of letters from his mother to his "Aunt" Fanny, and reads them. At the end, he discovers the truth about what happened to his father [[spoiler:who, in a desperate act to get money for his family, was shot trying to rob a bank]] and angrily throws the letters into the fireplace, declaring "The past is dead!".

* CausticCritic: In the original book, ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'', the art critic Mountclemens so very much so. He has managed to offend just about everyone on the art scene in town except for a select few artists he's propping up, but is kept because his columns draw huge readership. His targets include a wealthy donor whose art he described as "drugstore art." Of a sweet old butcher called "Uncle Waldo," he comments that "age is no substitute for talent." He also targets private collectors who are "less dedicated to art preservation than tax avoidance." Even his full name, George Bonifield Mountclemens III, pisses some off, as it must be set line-by-line in the type on his byline and he insists on no abbreviations.[[note]]The book was done in the 1960s when all of this still had to be done by hand.[[/note]]

* {{Cloudcuckoolanguage}}: Nino. {{Lampshaded}}: "He even speaks a language of his own, but we don't expect conformity of a genius, do we?"

* DivorceAssetsConflict: Arch Riker, Qwill's lifelong best friend, is mentioned to be fond of antique tin, and at one time had a sizable collection, which his first wife managed to get hold of in their divorce settlement. She promptly opened her own shop - "Tin 'n Stuff" - to sell it.

* EmbarrassingFirstName: James Mackintosh Qwilleran had his name legally changed. Few characters - possibly none other than Arch Riker - know that his birth name was ''Merlin'' James Qwilleran.
** Polly's real name is [[Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream Hippolyta]], and she mentions that her "poor sister [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Ophelia]]" had a rough time of it in school.

** Averted with ''Short and Tall Tales: Moose County Legends'', the book of local folk stories he collected and published. This was actually published as a real book, with Qwill's byline above Braun's.
* FirstGirlWins: To a small extent. In ''The Cat Who Saw Red'', Qwill is reunited with his first love, Joy; he admits that every woman he's ever been involved with since her, including his ex-wife, is a woman who reminds him of her. [[spoiler:After she's murdered, he finally moves on.]]

* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Liz Hart only appears tiny next to her boyfriend, Derek Cuttlebrink, who is seven feet tall.

* KickTheDog: Arch Riker, Qwill's lifelong best friend, is mentioned to be fond of antique tin, and at one time had a sizable collection. His first wife managed to get hold of it in their divorce settlement, and promptly opened her own shop - "Tin 'n Stuff" - to sell it.

* 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. However, 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.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Melinda Goodwinter]] tries this after she becomes convinced that Polly Duncan is the only thing standing between her and [[GoldDigger marrying into the Klingenschoen fortune]]. This is despite the fact that (a) she knows that Qwill has given away pretty much all his money to the K Foundation, and (b) she knows Qwill is not inclined to marry ''anyone''. Rationality wasn't exactly her strong point by the time she tried this.

* {{Nephewism}}: Played with. Qwill refers to Fanny Klingenschoen as his "Aunt Fanny," but they weren't related at all; she was his mother's best friend and considered him her godson.

* PunBasedTitle: The ''Moose County Something''. When Qwill purchased the local paper after its previous owner's death, he and the staff gave it this placeholder title and held a county-wide vote for a new name. The majority of the residents actually liked calling it the ''Something'', and it stuck.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Qwill encounters two of these in the course of the series. [[spoiler:One is a young woman 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; given these revelations, she's a much more sympathetic example than the former.]]

* TwinSwitch: A dark example in one book, when one brother murders his identical twin and then takes his place.

*** A mention of a character hiding out in Duluth (implying that it's a nearby "big place" that one could disappear into), plus the similar weather and proximity to the Great Lakes, could indicate northern Minnesota as Moose County's location.
----

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

* ShaggySearchTechnique: Koko is often responsible for unintentionally revealing the culprit or final clues... or is he? One of the ongoing themes for the series is the question of whether or not the Siamese is psychic.

* DisappearedDad: Qwill knows very little about his father, who died while his mother was pregnant. In one book, he learns what happened. [[spoiler:His father, an out-of-work actor with a penchant for alcohol, was shot by police officers while committing a robbery.]]

After five or six books, though, the series moves away from the city and into the northern part of America, into an area known as Moose County. Initially, he's visiting for a vacation, but things take a turn for the worse when [[ItWasHisSled his "aunt" Fanny Klingenschoen]] is the BodyOfTheWeek. He then, after solving the crime, inherits her money, with the provision that he live in Moose County for five years.

* ''The Cat Who Could Read Backwards'' (1966)
* ''The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern'' (1967)
* ''The Cat Who Turned On and Off'' (1968)
* ''The Cat Who Saw Red'' (1986)
* ''The Cat Who Played Brahms'' (1987)
* ''The Cat Who Played Post Office'' (1988)
* ''The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare'' (1988)
* ''The Cat Who Sniffed Glue'' (1988)
* ''The Cat Who Went Underground'' (1989)
* ''The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts'' (1990)
* ''The Cat Who Lived High'' (1990)
* ''The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal'' (1991)
* ''The Cat Who Moved a Mountain'' (1991)
* ''The Cat Who Wasn't There'' (1992)
* ''The Cat Who Went Into the Closet'' (1993)
* ''The Cat Who Came to Breakfast'' (1994)
* ''The Cat Who Blew the Whistle'' (1995)
* ''The Cat Who Said Cheese'' (1996)
* ''The Cat Who Tailed a Thief'' (1997)
* ''The Cat Who Sang for the Birds'' (1998)
* ''The Cat Who Saw Stars'' (1999)
* ''The Cat Who Robbed a Bank'' (2000)
* ''The Cat Who Smelled a Rat'' (2001)
* ''The Cat Who Went Up the Creek'' (2002)
* ''The Cat Who Brought Down the House'' (2003)
* ''The Cat Who Talked Turkey'' (2004)
* ''The Cat Who Went Bananas'' (2005)
* ''The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell'' (2006)
* ''The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers'' (2007)

* OnOneCondition: Qwill can only inherit the Klingenschoen money if he remains a resident of Moose County for five years. Leaving sooner than that would mean that the money would be turned over to a syndicate in New Jersey.

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