conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Qwill, Mountclemens, Koko entitled The Cat Who Could Read Backwards?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards: In the first book of the series, the reader is introduced to James Mackintosh Qwilleran (Qwill), a former crime reporter turned newsman on The Daily Fluxion.\nHis first assignment is the art beat where he meets a rather eccentric – and not very well-liked – art critic whom he befriends.\nHe also meets the critic\'s cat, a Siamese named Kao K\'o-Kung, Koko for short.\nJim Qwilleran is attempting to get his life back on track, starting with a new job; his old acquaintance, Arch Riker, is taking a chance.\nQwilleran became known as a journalist for covering crime, but his new job at the Flux is hardly so glamorous: he\'s working on the art beat.\nThe paper\'s resident art critic is the reclusive and decidedly unpopular one-handed man named George Bonifield Mountclemens III.\nQwill visits Mountclemens and meets Koko, a male Siamese cat who appears to be able to read, but only backwards.\nQwilleran rents a room from Mountclemens and starts to take care of Koko, who has rather delicate taste in eating.\nMountclemens adores some local artists and despises others.\nOne of the former is a young woman, Zoe Lambreth, whose husband owns the Lambreth Gallery, which showcases her works among others, including Scrano, and Zoe\'s protégé, Nino.\nMountclemens has an argument with Noel Farhar, the director of an art museum; the museum lost a million-dollar deal after a bad review from Mountclemens, and as a result Farhar is retiring.\nOne evening, Qwill is relaxing in the Press Club with his friend, the Flux photographer Odd Bunsen, when Bunsen is paged: there\'s been a murder at the Lambreth Gallery.\nSpecifically, it\'s the owner, Earl Lambreth, and the gallery was left in disarray, with paintings destroyed and furniture tossed about.\nQwill notices that a Ghirotto painting, or rather half of one, is missing; intact, the painting of a ballerina and monkey would be worth $150,000, but Lambreth\'s half, the ballerina, has disappeared.\nQwill attempts to comfort the attractive widow Lambreth, who is being protected and cared for by a friend named Butchy, also an artist and a teacher.\nA dagger goes missing from the art museum.\nMountclemens, just returned from a trip, does not seem very interested in Earl\'s death.\nAs an art writer, Qwill goes to a "happening" featuring Nino.\nNino\'s creations are made from things that people throw away, things that have meaning to him that others may not necessarily understand.\nThe show ends disastrously, when one of Nino\'s creations is knocked from its scaffolding, and Nino falls to his death attempting to save it.\nQwill has more theories than real sympathy for the recently deceased.\nNino didn\'t like Earl Lambreth.\nButchy didn\'t like the friendship between Zoe and Nino.\nCould Butchy have pushed Nino to his death.\nMeanwhile, the dagger and the Ghirotto are both found.\nDefeated in possible conspiracy theories, Qwill returns home to Koko.\nKoko leads Qwill upstairs to Mountclemens\' flat, where they find Mountclemens lying dead at the bottom of his fire escape.\nQwill continues to take care of the Siamese, and the next day, Koko leads him upstairs to retrieve his blue cushion and his favorite "mousie" toy, nicknamed Minty Mouse.\nIn the course of searching for the Minty Mouse, Qwill finds Mountclemens\' stash of paintings, which includes a half-painting of a monkey.\nIt is the match to the Ghirotto ballerina that Earl Lambreth owned.\nMountclemens had offered to buy Earl\'s half from him, not letting on that he owned the other half.\nHowever, Earl had something else Mountclemens wanted, or rather someone—Zoe had been leading the critic on by flirting with him in order to stay in his good graces.\nMountclemens might have killed Earl, but his name is on the airline\'s list of passengers, and Qwill believes this proves he was out of town.\nZoe interrupts Qwill\'s contemplation, and he invites her to the Press Club for lunch.\nAt the Press Club, Zoe gives credence to Qwill\'s theories.\nShe tells him Mountclemens owned the Lambreth Gallery, and Earl had been maintaining two sets of books, one real and one falsified.\nEarl had threatened to expose Mountclemens in order to stop his relationship with Zoe.\nThis would have put Mountclemens in jail.\nZoe believes Mountclemens killed Earl, and had someone fly under his name to provide himself with an alibi.\nReturning to the apartment, Qwill is in a quiet mood.\nCould Zoe have killed Mountclemens.\nShe didn\'t seem unhappy to see the art critic dead.\nKoko leads Qwill to the old apartment again, where he knocks a knife off the counter.\nIn the broom closet is a flashlight, but why wasn\'t there one by Mountclemens\' body.\nUnless in being one handed, Mountclemens chose a knife over a flashlight.\nYet he wasn\'t wearing his false hand, and the art critic was vain enough to wear it if he had an assignation with Zoe.\nKoko growls at the door of the abandoned studio, and Qwill enters to find that several of the paintings have vanished, and the remaining ones are highly valuable Scranos.\nAs Koko runs his nose over the signature backwards (ONARCS), the painter Qwill knew as Narx entered.\nNarx reached for the knife lying on the table, but Koko deflects his attack by leaping upon him and Qwill hits Narx with the flashlight.\nBack at the Press Club, Qwill recounted the adventure, pointing out that Narx drew robotic drawings that resembled himself, and was clearly also Narx since the paintings\' texture was so similar.\nKoko\'s reading the signature backwards merely confirmed this.\nThough Mountclemens could no longer paint or draw when he lost his hand, he could still instruct others, and Scrano had painted for himIn the art critic\'s last review, he said there would be no more art coming from Scrano which led Qwill to think that Mountclemens had intended on killing him, but Narx killed Mountclemens.\nOnce Scrano woke up, he confirmed Qwill\'s story.\nQwill had, however, guessed wrong about Butchy and Zoe.\nButchy had tried to save Nino and hurt herself in the process.\nZoe had had murderous intent but never followed up on it.\nUpon his return to the apartment, Qwill asked Koko: Had it been all a coincidence, when Koko led him up to the closet with the monkey painting was it simply for a lost toy.\nKoko gave the man no answers, just removed an itch with a hind paw and a contented look.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nKoko gave the man no answers, just removed an itch with a hind paw and a contented look.\nHis first assignment is the art beat where he meets a rather eccentric – and not very well-liked – art critic whom he befriends.\nHe also meets the critic\'s cat, a Siamese named Kao K\'o-Kung, Koko for short.\nJim Qwilleran is attempting to get his life back on track, starting with a new job; his old acquaintance, Arch Riker, is taking a chance.\nQwilleran became known as a journalist for covering crime, but his new job at the Flux is hardly so glamorous: he\'s working on the art beat.\nThe paper\'s resident art critic is the reclusive and decidedly unpopular one-handed man named George Bonifield Mountclemens III.\nQwill visits Mountclemens and meets Koko, a male Siamese cat who appears to be able to read, but only backwards.\nQwilleran rents a room from Mountclemens and starts to take care of Koko, who has rather delicate taste in eating.\nMountclemens adores some local artists and despises others.\nOne of the former is a young woman, Zoe Lambreth, whose husband owns the Lambreth Gallery, which showcases her works among others, including Scrano, and Zoe\'s protégé, Nino.\nMountclemens has an argument with Noel Farhar, the director of an art museum; the museum lost a million-dollar deal after a bad review from Mountclemens, and as a result Farhar is retiring.\nOne evening, Qwill is relaxing in the Press Club with his friend, the Flux photographer Odd Bunsen, when Bunsen is paged: there\'s been a murder at the Lambreth Gallery.\nSpecifically, it\'s the owner, Earl Lambreth, and the gallery was left in disarray, with paintings destroyed and furniture tossed about.\nQwill notices that a Ghirotto painting, or rather half of one, is missing; intact, the painting of a ballerina and monkey would be worth $150,000, but Lambreth\'s half, the ballerina, has disappeared.\nQwill attempts to comfort the attractive widow Lambreth, who is being protected and cared for by a friend named Butchy, also an artist and a teacher.\nA dagger goes missing from the art museum.\nMountclemens, just returned from a trip, does not seem very interested in Earl\'s death.\nAs an art writer, Qwill goes to a "happening" featuring Nino.\nNino\'s creations are made from things that people throw away, things that have meaning to him that others may not necessarily understand.\nThe show ends disastrously, when one of Nino\'s creations is knocked from its scaffolding, and Nino falls to his death attempting to save it.\nQwill has more theories than real sympathy for the recently deceased.\nNino didn\'t like Earl Lambreth.\nButchy didn\'t like the friendship between Zoe and Nino.\nCould Butchy have pushed Nino to his death.\nMeanwhile, the dagger and the Ghirotto are both found.\nDefeated in possible conspiracy theories, Qwill returns home to Koko.\nKoko leads Qwill upstairs to Mountclemens\' flat, where they find Mountclemens lying dead at the bottom of his fire escape.\nQwill continues to take care of the Siamese, and the next day, Koko leads him upstairs to retrieve his blue cushion and his favorite "mousie" toy, nicknamed Minty Mouse.\nIn the course of searching for the Minty Mouse, Qwill finds Mountclemens\' stash of paintings, which includes a half-painting of a monkey.\nIt is the match to the Ghirotto ballerina that Earl Lambreth owned.\nMountclemens had offered to buy Earl\'s half from him, not letting on that he owned the other half.\nHowever, Earl had something else Mountclemens wanted, or rather someone—Zoe had been leading the critic on by flirting with him in order to stay in his good graces.\nMountclemens might have killed Earl, but his name is on the airline\'s list of passengers, and Qwill believes this proves he was out of town.\nZoe interrupts Qwill\'s contemplation, and he invites her to the Press Club for lunch.\nAt the Press Club, Zoe gives credence to Qwill\'s theories.\nShe tells him Mountclemens owned the Lambreth Gallery, and Earl had been maintaining two sets of books, one real and one falsified.\nEarl had threatened to expose Mountclemens in order to stop his relationship with Zoe.\nThis would have put Mountclemens in jail.\nZoe believes Mountclemens killed Earl, and had someone fly under his name to provide himself with an alibi.\nReturning to the apartment, Qwill is in a quiet mood.\nCould Zoe have killed Mountclemens.\nShe didn\'t seem unhappy to see the art critic dead.\nKoko leads Qwill to the old apartment again, where he knocks a knife off the counter.\nIn the broom closet is a flashlight, but why wasn\'t there one by Mountclemens\' body.\nUnless in being one handed, Mountclemens chose a knife over a flashlight.\nYet he wasn\'t wearing his false hand, and the art critic was vain enough to wear it if he had an assignation with Zoe.\nKoko growls at the door of the abandoned studio, and Qwill enters to find that several of the paintings have vanished, and the remaining ones are highly valuable Scranos.\nAs Koko runs his nose over the signature backwards (ONARCS), the painter Qwill knew as Narx entered.\nNarx reached for the knife lying on the table, but Koko deflects his attack by leaping upon him and Qwill hits Narx with the flashlight.\nBack at the Press Club, Qwill recounted the adventure, pointing out that Narx drew robotic drawings that resembled himself, and was clearly also Narx since the paintings\' texture was so similar.\nKoko\'s reading the signature backwards merely confirmed this.\nThough Mountclemens could no longer paint or draw when he lost his hand, he could still instruct others, and Scrano had painted for himIn the art critic\'s last review, he said there would be no more art coming from Scrano which led Qwill to think that Mountclemens had intended on killing him, but Narx killed Mountclemens.\nOnce Scrano woke up, he confirmed Qwill\'s story.\nQwill had, however, guessed wrong about Butchy and Zoe.\nButchy had tried to save Nino and hurt herself in the process.\nZoe had had murderous intent but never followed up on it.\nUpon his return to the apartment, Qwill asked Koko: Had it been all a coincidence, when Koko led him up to the closet with the monkey painting was it simply for a lost toy.The Cat Who Could Read Backwards: In the first book of the series, the reader is introduced to James Mackintosh Qwilleran (Qwill), a former crime reporter turned newsman on The Daily Fluxion.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first four paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
  An aroma of lobster greeted Qwilleran in the dining alcove. Plates of soup, thick and creamy, were placed on a bare table that looked hundreds of years old. Thick candles burned in iron holders.
  As he seated himself in a lavishly carved, high-backed chair, he heard a thud in the living room. It was followed by throaty mutterings. A floorboard creaked, and a light-colored cat with a dark face and slanting eyes walked into the dining alcove.
  The cat took his time and, when he had finished looking at the visitor, calmly and without visible effort rose in vertical flight to the top of a tall cabinet.
  On top of the cabinet Kao K'o-Kung arranged himself in an imperious posture and watched the scene below with intelligent interest.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
  An aroma of lobster greeted Qwilleran in the dining alcove. Plates of soup, thick and creamy, were placed on a bare table that looked hundreds of years old. Thick candles burned in iron holders.
  As he seated himself in a lavishly carved, high-backed chair, he heard a thud in the living room. It was followed by throaty mutterings. A floorboard creaked, and a light-colored cat with a dark face and slanting eyes walked into the dining alcove.
  The cat took his time and, when he had finished looking at the visitor, calmly and without visible effort rose in vertical flight to the top of a tall cabinet.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know five more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: At the checkroom, where Qwilleran left his hat and coat, he asked Tom LaBlanc's girl where to find the Florentine Collection.
  She looked at him through a few strands of long hair that had fallen over one eye. "There's a loan exhibit of Swedish contemporary silver that's much more stimulating."
  For a checkroom attendant she was taking more than routine interest in directing him, Qwilleran thought, and his professional suspicion started wigwagging to him. He went to the Florentine Room.
  The Duxbury gift was a hodgepodge of paintings, tapestries, bronze reliefs, marble statues, manuscripts and small silver and gold objects in glass cases. Some were displayed behind sliding glass doors fitted with tiny, almost invisible locks; others stood on pedestals under glass domes that seemed permanently affixed.
  Qwilleran ran his finger down the catalog page and found the item that interested him: a gold dagger, eight inches long, elaborately chased, sixteenth century, attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. In the glass cases—among the salt cellars and chalices and religious statues—it was not to be seen.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last four paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Arch said, "What will happen to the value of Scrano pictures when this story breaks? A lot of investors are going to be jumping out of high windows."
  When Qwilleran arrived home to feed the cat, he found Koko sprawled on the living room carpet taking a bath.
  The pink tongue darted over white breast, brown paws and fawn flanks. Moistened pads were wiped over velvety brown ears. The lustrous brown tail was clutched between forepaws and groomed with painstaking care. Koko looked surprisingly like a cat and not the supernal creature who read minds, knew what was going to happen, smelled what he couldn't see, and sensed what he couldn't smell.
  Koko finished his tail and gazed at Qwilleran with a faraway look, as if some divine answer was forming in his glossy brown head. Then he twisted his lithe body into a tortured shape, turned up his nose, crossed his eyes, and scratched his ear with one hind leg and an expression of catly rapture.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: "
  When Qwilleran arrived home to feed the cat, he found Koko sprawled on the living room carpet taking a bath.
  The pink tongue darted over white breast, brown paws and fawn flanks. Moistened pads were wiped over velvety brown ears. The lustrous brown tail was clutched between forepaws and groomed with painstaking care. Koko looked surprisingly like a cat and not the supernal creature who read minds, knew what was going to happen, smelled what he couldn't see, and sensed what he couldn't smell.
  Koko finished his tail and gazed at Qwilleran with a faraway look, as if some divine answer was forming in his glossy brown head. Then he twisted his lithe body into a tortured shape, turned up his nose, crossed his eyes, and scratched his ear with one hind leg and an expression of catly rapture.