The Cat Dancers

Written by P. T. Deutermann

Narrated by Dick Hill

When two lowlifes rob a gas station, murder the attendant, and then incinerate bystanders who are filling up their minivan, the Manceford County, North Carolina, police quickly arrest the killers at a nearby motel.

But a stubborn judge throws out the case because the suspects were not read their rights, leaving Sheriff Bobby Lee Baggett and Lieutenant Cam Richter to face the anger of the victims’ families. Soon thereafter, a mysterious e-mail arrives in the department: a link to a video of one of the murderers being executed in a homemade electric chair, ending with a voice announcing, “That’s one.” The shocking video spreads throughout the Internet, drawing the attention of local, state, and federal authorities and national media, and putting intense pressure on Bobby Lee and Cam to find the vigilante before he claims his second victim.

Assigned to head the search, Cam finds himself resented by some of his fellow officers and subtly threatened by others. His job is further complicated by the fact that the offending judge is also his ex-wife and now—after years apart, and an uneasy reconciliation—his sometime lover. Cam’s questions lead him to a remote mountain area in western North Carolina and a group of daredevils who call themselves “the cat dancers”—so named because they have tracked the last wild mountain lions in the region to their dens, where they have photographed the animals face-to-face, or died trying. Cam must hunt this group and the cats they seek, or become their next target.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Nov 29, 2005
• ISBN: 9781597101240

P. T. Deutermann

P.T. DEUTERMANN is the noted author of many previous novels based on his experiences as a senior staff officer in Washington and at sea as a Navy Captain, and later, Commodore. His WWII works include The Last Paladin and Pacific Glory, both of which won the W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, Iwo, 26 Charlie, The Hooligans, The Nugget, Sentinels of Fire, The Commodore, Trial By Fire, and The Iceman. He lives with his wife of 56 years in North Carolina.

Reviews for The Cat Dancers

[kmajort · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

WNC mountains. Cops gone rogue, extreme with vigilantism.

[carl_alves_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A cat dancer, as in the title of this novel, is a mountain climber who get as close as possible to take a snap shot of a mountain lion. It seemed that the author really wanted to write a novel that features these cat dancers, and built a story to incorporate it that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t work. Linking the plot to the cat dancers is a man who gets electrocuted in a homemade electric chair by vigilante killers. Lt. Cam Richter is investigating the case and winds up in the mountains of North Carolina in search of the vigilantes, where he has to put his mountain climbing skills to work.There is a definite thrill component to the novel. Deuterman keeps the thrills and chills coming along. Unfortunately there are big plot holes and serious believability issues associated with the story. This makes the story an entertaining read, but not something that I would consider a real captivating novel.Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[barb_h_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this audiobook and think that I will probably have to read his books in the future. There was a LOT of profanity, which I find to be very distracting. I prefer to be able to skim over it, which is hard to do for audio. It was an interesting story though.