Customer Reviews

A Nose for Justice: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I NEVER thought I would say this about a RMB book, but -- I'm not sure I'm even going to finish this book. I just don't care about the characters, the mystery about the water rights just staggers along and there aren't enough animal scenes. If RMB had focused more on her characters than on the issues surrounding water rights so that the mystery itself is clearer, the book would have been much better. It's an author's right to express her own views but when I want to read about the pros and cons of an issue, I read a newspaper. When I want to read for entertainment and lessons about the natural world, I usually go to RMB.

When Wall Street tanked, many people lost their jobs including broker Magdalene "Mags" Rogers. Broke and disillusioned she returns home to her great-Aunt Magdalene "Jeep" Reed who owns the 10,000 acre ranch Wings in Nevada. She has bought more land and water rights to other property in order to stop more mansions from being built that would use up the water and destroy the ecosystem.

On the day that Mags comes home, someone ignites a pipe bomb to blow up property belonging to SSRM (Silver State resource management); responsible for seeing that there is enough water to supply the citizens of the state. A man concerned with Nevada's water supply is found murdered in a hotel room. Not long after that another pump is blown up. An SSRM top official is killed. Some people who bought small plots in the Mini Mansion complex Horseshoe Estates are killed and one person is on the run. Others refuse to talk while the police begin to realize all these events are linked. Jeep and Mags becomes involved when a corpse is found on their property. They help the police with background information while their dogs can't make their humans understand their concerns.

Baxter who belongs to Mags and King who owns Jeep have interesting amusing conversations with each other as each believes they are the top dog except when it comes to the safety of their two women. As the canines argue over who is the lead, ironically much of book involves human greed on a scale of The Treasure of the Sierra Madres. This is the first book in Rita Mae Brown's new series and readers who enjoy the author's Miss Murphy capers will love A Nose for Justice as the human and canine cast is strong and the whodunit exciting.

Harriet Klausner

This is the debut in Ms. Brown's new detective series. It is a good mystery story and I realy enjoyed that aspect of it. For us fans of Sneaky Pie & Mrs. Murphy this new series does not use the animals characters to any great extent. BUT the story is good and keeps you guessing to the end. There have been comments on the later stories in the Mrs. Murphy series about Ms. Brown being too "preachy". This aspect is missing from this book. Just enjoy a good mystery story.

I have been a Rita Mae Brown fan since she first started writing the Mrs Murphy mysteries and have read most of her other work also (and was lucky enough to get her autograph at a book signing), but A Nose for Justice seems to be much of the same as her other mystery books, with just a change from the South to the West. I had hoped for something very new. As always, she has done her research for the book and I now know more about water rights then I probably ever wanted to, but it was interesting.
All in all, I would recommend this book to people who are not too familiar with her past books. And for those of us who will read anything she writes, let's hope the next book in the series is a little less like this one and strikes out in a somewhat new direction.

I was looking forward to the new Rita Mae Brown series. I am a bit dissappointed. While the characters are described well and the writing is Ms. Brown's usual fine quality, the plot failed to capture me at all. There seemed to be "too much" background and Jeep, the central character, was almost too accomplished in her long life to be true. However, this is fiction and the author has full poetic license!

The plot seemed a big hard to handle for my taste, the water rights of the remote region in the West.

There may be more merit as she develops this line, as the Mrs. Murphy series has truly run its course( a delight series as Ms. Brown's fans attest).
I will try the second book and see if Jeep and her niece along with the dogs will be more interesting.

As an avid fan of Rita Mae Brown's, I have to say I was so disappointed in this book. I am hoping this is not the replacement series for the Sister Jane mysteries. There is so much left undone with Jefferson Hunt Club!! So many questions yet unanswered.

I usually finish Dr. Brown's books in a day. I have had this one for a few days and I'm having a struggle getting through it. The characters are dull. The story line is so-so. I realize the importance of water rights, having lived in the west for a period of time. But truly, I think it was a poor choice for a storyline. I doubt I will buy any more of this series, which is sad since I own complete collections of her other series and individual books.
Her books entice me to research things I never would have thought of....and that's enjoyable for me and makes the books much deeper.

Rita Mae Brown puts words together like no I ever knew. Even her book on how to be a writer (Starting from Scratch) was a really enjoyable read! Her words flow like paint on canvas. This book was choppy....like a rough trot instead of a flowing canter.

I implore you, Dr. Brown, to continue your foxhunting series, if no other reason, to bring closure to all of us who enjoy it.

I am sorely disappointed in this new book from Ms. Brown. In the first 65 page, which is as far as I will read, I have endured foul language, politics, no story line and finally, the breaking point, men discussing their parts and what they do or do not do with. I will not read that kind of material. If you have to use that stuff for a filler then you need to go back to the basics of writing. I hesitate to give it even one star. I will not be purchasing this author again though I have all of her other books. Sad.

I love Rita Mae Brown's novels so this novel was doubly disappointing. It just didn't seem to hang together well, the mystery was weak, and I found the characters uninteresting. The animal characters were not up to the quality of Mrs. Murphy, et al. Altogether, a big let down.

I am an avid reader of Ms. Brown's books and was terribly disappointed with the content. The dogs seems to be an after thought and were hardly included. The story was very slow. The old murder was boring. The ending was so anticlimactic, I felt like I had wasted 3 days getting to the end.

I had read other reviews before purchasing this book but couldn't believe it would be that bad -- not considering it was Rita Mae. I have read all of her books over the years and they were very entertaining at the least.
Where have you gone, Rita Mae? I plodded through the lectures on water rights and Nevada history, searching for the mystery. Here and there some of the primary mystery would pop up and finally the last quarter of the book was used to wrap it all up. Trouble is, the solution and motive were pretty flimsy. This should have been divided into a water rights essay and a novella.
When her next book comes out, I believe I'll just wait for the reviews and then maybe hit the library and save my money.