The Purrfect Murder (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Rita Mae Brown (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mrs. Murphy Mysteries | Publication Date: January 29, 2008

New York Times bestselling authors Rita Mae Brown and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, return with a new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker. But are they any match for a killer who’s made an entire town suspect by committing…

Autumn has arrived in cozy Crozet, Virginia, and that means the town’s inhabitants are hard at work in home and garden preparing for winter. Harry is planning to harvest her first crop of Petit Manseng grapes along with her beloved sunflowers. Meanwhile, her recent marriage to Fair and her friendship with Deputy Cynthia Cooper, who’s rented nearby Blair Farm, are flourishing. But even when peace descends on the idyllic countryside, murder is lurking.

Mrs. Carla Paulson is one of the diamond-encrusted “come-here” set who has descended on Crozet with plenty of wealth and no feeling for country ways. She’s determined to make her new house the envy of all her well-heeled friends—and enemies—and she’s hired architect Tazio Chappers to build it.

From the start, the project—and Mrs. Paulson—turns into a major headache relieved only by a side trip to study Thomas Jefferson’s extraordinary summer home at Poplar Forest. Harry couldn’t foresee that a day later Mrs. Paulson would be found stabbed to death at a gala fund-raiser with Harry’s friend, Tazio Chappers, standing over her, holding the knife.

Now Harry must solve what seems to everyone else an open-and-shut case. Every other human, that is. For her four-legged friends see it Harry’s way. But will they have to choose between catching the purrfect killer or saving Harry?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Brown's uneven 15th Mrs. Murphy Mystery (after 2007's Puss 'n Cahoots), Mary Minor Harry Haristeen, the former postmistress of Crozet, Va., is saddened to hear that a local ob-gyn has been killed—either by a resentful friend, who thought the doc had once slept with his wife, or by prolife fanatics who were angered by his willingness to perform abortions. Next, a wealthy middle-aged woman is murdered at a fund-raiser. Harry's friend Tazio Chappars appears to be the most likely suspect, but Harry is sure of Tazio's innocence and begins to wonder if the two deaths are connected. Character development is frustratingly thin, and rather than exploiting the rich Virginia setting, Brown's local color extends only to superficial clichés (wealthy Virginia women wear understated jewelry, and the ladies with the flashiest gems are tacky new money). Harry's three pets, who pop up having testy, italicized conversations, are generally a distraction, not integral to the novel. Still, the well-paced plot builds to an unpredictable and complex conclusion. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

The sixteenth entry in Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy mystery series finds Harry Haristeen and her cotererie of feline friends (including the indomitable Mrs. Murphy) springing into action after a local socialite is murdered at a fund-raiser, and Harry’s friend, Tazio, is found standing over the body, knife in hand. Of course, Harry sets out to clear Tazio and gets herself into the usual pack of trouble before being helped out by the furry bunch. The well-limned local ambience, which has a genuine feel for Virginia sensibilities, as well as the expected humor, mystery, and crisp characterizations, human and animal, add up to another pleaser for the series fans. --Sally Estes

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (January 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553803654
• ISBN-13: 978-0553803655
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of the Sister Jane novels-Outfoxed, Hotspur, Full Cry, The Hunt Ball, The Hounds and the Fury, The Tell-Tale Horse, and Hounded to Death-as well as the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries and Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, and The Sand Castle, among many others. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I still enjoyed this book, March 5, 2008

By 

Michael O. Byrd (MEMPHIS, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Purrfect Murder (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I miss Miranda a lot. I miss the post office. These, to me helped provide so much of the charm in this series. The charm more than anything seems to be diminished since Miranda got a beau and Harry quit the p.o.

I'm always game for a little kitty/doggy rescue squad action, but I agree with other's in that I think now that Harry is getting careless in allowing herself to come to harm. For which we then get an obligatory rescue complete with ankle biting and the jumping on of backs.

I was a little disappointed that by the end it started rushing to conclusions. It felt a little more like a 5 minute ending on a t.v. show than the well crafted end of a good mystery book.

I'm a little mixed on the political infusion in recent books. As a flaming liberal I'm not opposed to Ms. Brown's politics so much as I feel awkward about them being in these books. I share these books with several friends who range from liberal to conservative, older to younger. I'm waiting for the more conservative or older friends to come screaming at me about lesianism and abortion being dealt with so directly. (Though oddly enough it hasn't actually happened.)

That said, perhaps these are things that should be in these books as they are ideas which should be discussed and debated more openly in our society. These books have always had a pastoral and virtuous charm and I think some people feel that liberals have no claim on pastoral virtue. It's refreshing to see good wholesome people who don't quite fit into that right-leaning ideal of country life.

In the end, this book is still witty and fun albeit a tad political, but unlike another cat series I won't mention, they are still a great deal of fun to read. I can't wait for the next one.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars fast & fun, a bit sloppy, February 3, 2008

By 

J.K. Harper (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Purrfect Murder (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I've been reading this series since it started, and it's been a fun ride most of the time. While I do agree that Brown has begun to use her books as a soapbox for her views on current events--oh, well, c'est la vie. That's her choice, and it also can make the characters come more alive. I do concede that she'd be better off sharing most of her opinions in essays or a blog, however. These books are not quite the correct vehicle.

In this latest installment, Harry is once again intrigued by mysterious events, especially since her good friend Tazio Chappers seems to be the cut-and-dried murderer of a wealthy newcomer--and Harry does not for a second believe Tazio did it! I always find Harry's interest in solving crimes and her love for her friends and community endearing. The sloppiness of the plot comes from its transparency and its too-fast ending. Brown spent a lot of time on her soapbox that could perhaps have been better spent properly developing the plot and the characters in question.

I also wanted to see a bit more of the old coziness of Crozet and its townfolk. For instance, while I love Harry's new life with Fair, growing her grapes and sunflowers, not struggling quite as much for money any longer, I do miss seeing the relationship she had with Miranda, her time at the post office, etc. Seems all the characters are getting new interests that go outside of Crozet and into the wider world. Not that that's a bad thing, at all--people need to grow. But could they grow while still retaining their closeness to their home and its people?

Overall, this was a typical fun Sneaky Pie mystery, with the same loving animals, uniquely Southern name-calling (Mrs. Murphy and Pewter get into a hissy fight in the back of a car around a discussion of their nether regions, which is hilarious--I think my cats have done the same thing), and small-town community connections I've become accustomed to. Perhaps just a bit more focus on tightening the plotting of the actual mysteries in the future would be in order? This ending was not quite as dramatic as some in the past. But I'm still going to keep reading the series!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Quite a few holes., February 11, 2008

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Purrfect Murder (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I have been finding that the Mrs. Murphy mystery series is getting a bit sloppy. There appears to be a lot of holes in the plot in this one as well. The book starts out with two storylines, that appear to meld together, and then ends up with two storylines again. It makes it a bit difficult to follow the plot. But we do have the people of Crozet (although not so much of Miranda), and that helps, and we have the animal characters which help to carry this story along. I just feel a bit disappointed because the book seemed rushed, and so much didn't make sense. I do hope that Ms. Brown will pick up in the next book because I have enjoyed Harry and her animal companions.