Braun, Lilian Jackson (1913-2011), was an American author of detective stories that feature a Siamese cat. The cat, named Koko, belongs to a newspaper columnist and amateur detective named Jim Qwilleran (known as Qwill). Koko and Qwill’s other cat, Yum Yum, assist Qwill in solving mysteries. Braun sets the stories in the northern Midwest, probably Michigan, though she never specifies the state. Her early novels earned praise for their sharp dialogue, convincing Midwestern local color, and entertaining characters. Critics do not rank Braun’s later novels as highly.
Braun was born on June 20, 1913, in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. She worked as an editor for the Detroit Free Press from 1948 to 1978. She began writing short stories with cats as detectives while working on the newspaper. Her first novel was The Cat Who Could Read Backwards (1966). All her succeeding novels began with The Cat Who… .
After publication of the third novel in the series in 1968, Braun concentrated on her career at the Free Press. After retirement, she revived the series with The Cat Who Saw Red (1986). Other books in the series include The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare (1988), The Cat Who Sniffed Glue (1988), The Cat Who Went Underground (1989), 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 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 Talked Turkey (2004), and The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers (2007). A collection of short stories was published as The Cat Who Had Fourteen Tales (1988). Braun died on June 4, 2011.
