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    Basil and the Cave of Cats
    Basil and the Cave of Cats
    Basil and the Cave of Cats
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Basil and the Cave of Cats

    By Eve Titus and Paul Galdone

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Named one of “13 Detective Book Series You Obsessed over as a Kid” by Buzzfeed.com and the inspiration for a hit Disney film, the masterful Great Mouse Detective series is now available to a whole new generation of readers!

    Basil the mouse detective sets off on a journey to solve one of the greatest mysteries of mousedom: Do miniature cats exist? Leading mouse scientists aren’t certain, but they believe that answers can be found in India.

    As Basil sets sail for the Far East—and the lost island of Kataarh—danger stalks him at every turn. Will Basil successfully unravel the mystery of these mini-cats and their mouse king?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAladdin
    Release dateMay 17, 2016
    ISBN9781481464062
    Author

    Eve Titus

    Eve Titus (1905–2002) wrote many books for children during her long career, including the Basil of Baker Street books and the Anatole series.

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    Reviews for Basil and the Cave of Cats

    4/5

    24 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      In this installment of this clever series, Basil is called on to explore a lost island where it is said miniature cats live. Could it be true? Leave it to Basil to get to the bottom of things! Though entertaining for children, this one also has a message and a moral. You shouldn’t fear the unknown and you should help others when you can.
    • 4/5
      Basil and his faithful companion David Dawson go on a seafaring adventure to look for the lost island of the pygmy cats. It's a mild, very short and simple children's adventure - kind of a transitional chapter book for primary readers. I like Basil very much, even though he is the smartest, most awesome, best at everything kind of mouse. He doesn't even shoot heroin like the real Holmes, sigh. Basil instantly is able to speak the Pygmy cat's language, rescue the Maharajah, foil Professor Ratigan not once, but twice!! Yes, he's too good a mouse to be true. Alas.
    • 2/5
      First sentence: Miniature cats! Breathes there, in all the world, a mouse who is not stirred by those two words? Did the miniature monsters actually exist? Our leading mouse scientists were not certain, but they all believed the answer would be found in the Orient.Premise/plot: This one was originally titled Basil and the Pygmy Cats. (It's being rebranded/republished as Basil and the Cave of Cats. On this one Basil and Dr. David Q. Dawson go traveling the world. There are two sub-stories--they are out to help a friend/ruler get his kingdom back AND to solve the so-called mystery of if miniature cats ever existed. My thoughts: I thought this one was lacking in mystery, lacking as a detective story. It's like the series has taken a turn from being a detective story with a traditional detective and turned into a archaeological quest. This one was 99% world-building. That sounds like it would be a good thing. But imagine it more as an encyclopedia type of world-building. Readers are essentially getting a text-book education on mouse lore that is thousands of years old. Was I interested? Not really. It requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief. Like mice traveling the globe; mice ruling countries. It was just a little too much for me to really enjoy. I much preferred the idea of a mouse living in a mouse town in the cellar of Sherlock Holmes' residence.

    Book preview

    Basil and the Cave of Cats - Eve Titus

    1

    THE CLUE OF THE GOLDEN GOBLET

    MINIATURE CATS! BREATHES THERE, IN all the world, a mouse who is not stirred by those two words?

    Did the miniature monsters actually exist? Our leading mouse scientists were not certain, but they all believed the answer would be found in the Orient.

    It was Basil of Baker Street, the Sherlock Holmes of the Mouse World, who solved the mystery. He used his skill as a scientific sleuth to bring to light secrets long hidden behind the curtains of the past, secrets no other mouse had been able to discover.

    Professor Ratigan, leader of the mouse underworld, stalked him at every turn! Danger was Basil’s constant companion. Ratigan’s spies were at the border, in the jungle, on the ship, and—

    But let me tell you how the adventure began. . . .

    The year is 1894. The place is London, England, at Baker Street, Number 221B, where live Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Dr. John H. Watson.

    Mr. Holmes is the World’s Greatest Human Detective. Basil is the World’s Greatest Mouse Detective, and I, Dr. David Q. Dawson, am his friend.

    We dwell in the cellar of 221B, in the mouse town of Holmestead, which Basil named after his hero. My friend would often scurry up secret passageways to Mr. Holmes’ rooms. There he would take notes in shortpaw as the human detective told Dr. Watson exactly how he solved his difficult cases. One might say that Basil studied at the great man’s feet.

    Did Mr. Holmes ever see his small admirer, hidden in a corner? I believe he did, and that it pleased him to pass his methods on to a mouse.

    And such a mouse! I am of average height, about five inches tall, but Basil towers a full inch above me.

    My notebook is crammed with accounts of his cases. I am a busy doctor, but whenever possible, I take pen in paw to write of his achievements. Would that I had time to narrate them all!

    There was the Mystery of the Bald-Headed Mouse, a bank director. One foggy morning he stepped out of his office and vanished, along with a lot of the bank’s money. Mouseland Yard detectives sought him with no success, but Basil studied the clues and found the bald banker in Edinburgh, wearing a wig and using another name. Most of the stolen funds were untouched, for spending large sums in Scotland would have drawn attention to the thief at once.

    Then there was the Case of the Guinea-Pig Gang. The honest mice of London dared not venture out at night until Basil cleverly found the criminals’ hideout and had them all jailed.

    But of all his cases, Basil’s own favorite is the Adventure of the Cave of Cats. It put to use all his remarkable skill as a sleuth, plus his vast knowledge of the science of archeology.

    Basil’s hobby was archeology. He had discovered Rockhenge, the ancient mouse ruins near London.

    Interviewed by newspapermice, Basil said, The most exciting detective work in the world is archeology! As we dig, clues keep turning up. Arrowheads, old weapons, broken bowls—any or all may hold clues to the life and times of prehistoric mice. The calendar stone I found at Rockhenge, for example, proved that mice perfected a 365-day calendar long before mankind. Clearly, archeology is the highest form of detective work, for lessons we learn from the past help mice to build a better, brighter future!

    The clues concerning the cave of cats were to take us halfway across the world, to the Far East.

    Originally we had planned our trip to the Orient for a different reason—to restore the Maharajah of Bengistan to his rightful throne.

    Cyril the Stoolpigeon had brought word that our enemy, Professor Ratigan, now ruled Bengistan, a mouse kingdom near India.

    Too large to enter, the pigeon stood at our window to tell us what a little bird had told him.

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