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Lenny Aaron, heroine - or should it be anti-heroine? - of Caroline Shaw's first novel Cat Catcher returns in Eye to Eye as Shaw sets out another maze of misadventures for the redoubtable cat retriever to traverse. If you like to digest learning relatively painlessly, absorbing the topic by way of fiction, this book can be your way of studying a little about the way students make films. If, too, you are a fan of the British author Liz Evans ( Who Killed Marilyn Monroe, JFK is Missing, Don't Mess With Mrs. In-Between) or of the American writer Janet Evanovich, then Caroline Shaw is the wordsmith for you. Lenny Aaron has a business as a private investigator of sorts: the main focus of and greatest money earner for her work is retrieving lost cats but in this book she has been hired by an insurance company to discover who has been vandalising and stealing property from Melbourne film school, Aquinas College of the Arts. For this job, Lenny has to go underground, pretending to be a returnee, or someone who studied some years previously at the college, but did not complete the course, now discovering that her vocation really is in screen studies, so wishes to continue with her uncompleted discipline. Naturally enough there is a murder on campus. What reader in possession of his senses would want to read about a tame insurance investigation, after all? Emily Cunningham, a returnee, daughter of a wealthy family involved in a national hardware chain, is killed at the college when trying to work after hours, against the rules of the institution, on her film. The murderer - shock, horror - cuts out her eyes. Never fear, Gentle Reader, this is not gratuitous gore, but necessary both to the title of the novel and to the motive for the murder. Lenny, a former cop ( like Liz Evans¼ Grace Smith) is not officially involved in the murder investigation, but her one-time police partner is, and her own inquiry intersects with the police procedure in many places. Thus, she is able, ultimately, to solve both problems (not disclosing that early on she knows the identity of the vandal and thief) to her own satisfaction and without managing to get killed. Like Evanovich¼s Stephanie Plum, Lenny has a pet, but unlike Plum¼s hamster, Rex, Lenny¼s pet is a cat, Cleo Aaron. Lenny holds many conversations with the cat who, of course, contributes to Lenny¼s solving the mysteries. Somehow. Lenny is portrayed in all her neurotic glory as an addict and multiple pharmacy shopper. She blithely steals prescription forms (not for her the obvious entire script pad) and concentrates on one particular pharmacy where the daughter of the pharmacist is a teenage naÔf who actually believes Lenny is a Brown Owl with a Brownie troop. Thus, Lenny puts at risk her liver and stomach lining by constantly overdosing on paracetamol and aspirin, as well as making herself feel lots happier by ingestion of psychotropic drugs. Her encounter with the enraged pharmacist who warns her away from both his pharmacy and his daughter, is a delight. Lenny is not such a sympathetic character as Evans¼ and Evanovich¼s heroines. She has more obvious problems - her father has died in recent months and she is extremely depressed about that. Like Stephanie Plum, she has close relatives, but not well-meaning and likeable ones like Granny Mazur. Lenny¼s grandmother is a horror. Shaw has invented some impressive characters, from barber Anastasia, the accidental catnapper to a most unpleasant member of the local Council, whose cat was napped and who is carrying on a vendetta against cat retrievers. The students are (dare one crib a phrase?) a weird mob, none of whom I would like to meet at a party or, for that matter, in a dark alley anywhere in Melbourne. The action of the book is fast paced. Shaw¼s creation of Komodo Man and the subsequent kerfuffle attendant on it, alone is worth the price of the book. There are large dollops of humour throughout contrasting with the pathos of Lenny¼s mental health. The resolution of the mystery is surprising and leaves the reader hoping Shaw has more Aaron sorties planned. Editor¼s Note: This one appears only to be available in Oz, so check with your favorite independent bookstore to see if they can get it for you.
Reviewed by Denise Wels, July 2000
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