The Feline Friendship
 Michael Allen Dymmoch
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 2003 Thomas Dunne Books
 ISBN: 0312310161

Chicago Detective Thinnes specializes in homicides until he's assigned a rape case & a new partner.

Psychiatrist & consultant to the police Jack Caleb is counseling a victim of a rape that occurred fifteen years ago. With all the news of these new rapes, the woman is filled with memories & a lethal kind of rage.

Caleb is also assigned a young first-time offender, who gives the other side to the why of rape, as he alternately squirms & brags about his deeds.

Then the teenage daughter of Caleb's lover, pays his office a visit, & tells him of an attempted rape by one of her school mates, & asks him how she should tell her father.

John Thinnes has gone through three partners in as many years, & feels there's a jinx breathing down his neck. Then when he's snagged for a vicious rape case, & his new partner turns out to be female, with a reputation, John Thinnes is not a happy camper, &, veteran though he is, takes it home with him.

It's not that Thinnes has a hard time working with women cops, Detective Kate Ryan is a good cop, “one of the guys.” Don Franchi, however, is different -- even though she's “built to get a man's attention, her body language was a HAZMAT sign”, she's also a nicotine addict, with a scowl that howls “no sense of humor.” She's observant, intrepid & quick on the mark, however, she needs training, & Thinnes decides to give her some, in spades.

The rapes are mounting up, with no connections other than where the victims are left -- in dead-end alleys under the depressing fog that's been sitting over Chicago's near-Northside. Clues lead Thinnes & Franchi out to an elite Bedlam, only to come to a seemingly indisputable dead end in the cinders of a fire.

No one ever sees the rapist, each new attack is the duplicate of the last except for two strange & subtle clues. When killing is added, Thinnes turns to Caleb for pointers.

After a hunt filled with suspense, lighted at intervals by further discovery of the perpetrator's ‘system,’ the gay psychiatrist, the crime-hardened cop, & his unstoppable partner are finally able to bring their elusive prey to heel.

With a hair-raising & satisfying ending, Thinnes, Caleb & Franchi see their case close.

One of the reasons I enjoyed The Feline Friendship is because it's set in a part of Chicago I used to know well. Although I have to say, the reason for the title has gone right over my head unless this is the clue: Acting Commander Evanger, trying to get his detectives all together for a conference, felt he was “herding cats.”, or perhaps it is the spitting & raised hackles between Thinnes & Franchi.

Another reason is Michael Allen Dymmoch's style -- short, simple & immediate! As too the sexist sparring among fellow cops. Some hoary old gender apartheid jokes get tossed around like grenades.

The Feline Friendship is also more than just a good mystery, it is a handbook on what rape is, how it affects the victims, the men & women who must seek justice for the crime, as well as our families.

More from Michael Allen Dymmoch:
The Man Who Understood Cats
Incendiary Designs
The Death of Blue Mountain Cat
(09/07/03)

Rebecca