Customer Reviews

Santa Clawed (The Mrs. Murphy series)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We are accustomed to talking about "summer reads," those light but compelling novels we have in hand on planes or at the beach, gulping down a few chapters on vacation or sunning at the park. In winter we like to turn to serious books, thick tomes to lose ourselves in, ideally sitting before a warm fire, snuggled in a favorite chair. But the holidays are times of rest and travel as much as the summer is, and snowy and cold days call for fun and well-written books as much as hot and humid days do. Enter Rita Mae (and Sneaky Pie) Brown and SANTA CLAWED, a solid mystery with familiar characters and a brisk pace, just perfect for wintertime reading.

The small, tight-knit town of Crozet, Virginia, is gearing up for Christmas. Mary Haristeen, known to all as Harry, is busy preparing for holiday parties and events, spending time with family and friends. But as colder than typical weather blows in, the town finds itself dealing with a series of murders, and the only clue to solving them is a bit of Greek mythology.

It all starts when Harry and her husband Fair go to the tree lot run by the Brothers of Love, a monastic order living on the outskirts of town, to select a Christmas tree. They find the perfect pine but also come across the slain body of one of the monks at the end of the lot. Brother Christopher had been raised in Crozet, and after getting in trouble for white collar crimes, he dedicated his life to The Brothers of Love. He was well liked, so it was hard to imagine who would hate him enough to slit his throat right before Christmas. Harry promises to stay out of the way of the police investigation, but another murder and her own assault --- after finding a suspicious box hidden in the woods near her home --- make that impossible. Christmas is coming ever closer, and the town is reeling as it becomes obvious that there is a killer at work and at large.

Brown's latest is at once homey and exciting. Popular characters like Harry, Fair and others who people Crozet are back. Returning too are Harry's funny animal familiars, cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and dog Tucker. Though they can't always clearly communicate to the humans they live with, these pets find ways to help Harry and the others solve the mystery nonetheless.

SANTA CLAWED balances well the violence of the murders and the fear of the town's residents with witty dialogue and an overall entertaining feel. There are crimes to solve here, but Brown's focus is on the characters themselves and how they deal with the stress and uncertainty in their town. Though most of them rally together, there are those who, realistically, don't. In the end, the identity of the killer and the motivation for the crimes come as a big surprise.

In this new Mrs. Murphy mystery, Rita Mae Brown again shares authorial credit with her feline companion, Sneaky Pie Brown, and so it is not surprising that the animal characters are just as interesting as the human ones. But the easy and enjoyable nature of the novel (despite the subject matter) makes SANTA CLAWED a recommendable wintertime read.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

This series has had its ups and downs but, happy to say, this latest entry shows Sneaky Pie and Rita Mae are definitely back on track. The authors' opinions and views are less preachy and integrated better into the story which is a darn good mystery. The ending has a couple of nice and (to me) unexpected twists. The animals are hilarious and delightful as usual. The very last page will have you smiling and shaking your head at the very least if not laughing out loud. This is also a great story to get you in the mood for Christmas. ENJOY!

With the Christmas holidays arriving soon, life seems comfy in Crozet, Virginia; a place where all sorts of animals talk to each across species lines. The only ones who don't understand the inter-animal communication system are the dumb humans. Although Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen thinks she can sometimes comprehend what her pets are saying especially her two cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and to a lesser degree her corgi Tee Tucker.

Harry and her husband Fair are looking for a Christmas tree at a farm run by The Brothers of Love, a group dedicated to helping AIDS patients at their hospice. When they reach the monks' tree farm near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Harry and Fair are stunned to find the dead body of Brother Christopher, who joined the monastery soon after he left jail. He was sent there for insider trading bilking clients for millions. When a second monk is found murdered, his throat slashed similar in a way to Christopher's death with a coin also in his mouth, the police know they are dealing with a cold blooded killer. Harry and her animal caretakers investigate only to find her caught in a web by a predator willing to make the Yuletide season blood red.

Obviously similar to previous tales in the long running saga, anyone who appreciates a pick me up filled with humor and murder will want to read SANTA CLAWED. Although Harry and Fair remarried they are still honeymooning while finding corpses decorating trees. The animals do what they do best one claw make that clue at a time while trying to keep their meddling beloved owner safe from her actions that place her in danger. The mystery is fun as the killer is in plain sight but difficult to identify. Team Brown provides another enjoyable Harry and her PUSS `N CAHOOTS anthropomorphic whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

I used to enjoy this series. The characters used to have more depth and more differences; now nearly every one of the standard cast of characters is full of sweetness and light. That's not only not real, it's boring. The books used to be "cozy" but with spirit; now they're blah. The plots have become too predictable, with the heroine's cats and dog miraculously saving her time and again. I know from the earlier books in this series, and from Brown's other mystery series, also set in Virginia among horses, that she can do much better work. I fear she is running out of either inventiveness or interest, which is sad - I have enjoyed her books and many of her characters. I bought this Mrs. Murphy book, but I won't buy the next one - I'll just take it out of the library and read it.

This book was given to me because I love cats and enjoy reading an occasional whodunit. What a disappointment!

To begin, the story is more thinly disguised strident feminism than a good mystery tale. The heroine, given a male nickname (Harry), has two cats and a dog, all female. Her best friend has a bitch. The minister has three cats, again all female. Living in the barn are a `possum, a snake, and an owl: you guessed it, all female. Come on!

It's not just the animals, of course. All the well drawn characters are women. Men are given names and that's about it, except for Harry's husband, who gets slightly more attention. A sheriff exists, but it is his female deputy who represents law enforcement. Husbands, or what little we learn of them, mostly have or have had affairs, including Harry's own spouse. A monastery, around which the plot revolves, is populated solely by former bad guys who are now born again Christian monks (but can a leopard change spots? asks Harry).

There are lots of hard-to-swallow events, such as the nature of the murders themselves. When a bad guy sneaks up on Harry, neither her dog nor her one cat present raise the alarm or try to defend her. But later on, the dog remembers this guy and attacks him. (Yeah, right.) When apprehended, the killer grabs the sheriff's gun from its holster. (Wherever did he get his law enforcement training?) There are also inconsistencies and threads left unraveled, but the foregoing is sufficient to illustrate the impossibility of maintaining a willing suspension of disbelief.

A real mystery story gives the reader everything needed to figure out who done did it and why -- so that you kick yourself for having failed to connect the pieces. Not so with this story. Thanks very much author Brown, but no thanks; I'll stick with Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie.
Lord Peter : The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey StoriesPoirot's Early CasesSecret Adversary

Compared to her other work, this book just wasn't up to par. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the other books of the series. It was very short, she had already done a book about the monastery.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, especially after reading the mostly positive reviews. But, this book, along with the last one, Sour Puss, just seems to be fizzling out. I felt like I was reading a Reader's Digest version that only touched on the main characters and ideas, focusing instead on the state of the human race (we're all doomed, it seems!). Major characters that were being developed in past books are barely mentioned, new characters are only partially developed, then dropped with a thud. Boo-hoo!

Rita Mae Brown's mystery series starring pets and their owner has been a guilty pleasure. After more than a dozen entries in the series, I am addicted. I read the good ones--which satirize at the same time they fondly celebrate the collision of traditional Virginia horse country culture with the modern world--and the not so good episodes that just don't deliver the same amount of character, wit and cultural coloring. When she's very, very good, RMB stays true to her airtight version of Crozet, Virginia. In a couple, she's strayed beyond her world either geographically or thematically. This time out, she mostly stays true to that world, but the air is out of it, like a flat tire.

I was worried that "Santa Clawed" arrived too quickly--less than a year--on the heels of the previous mystery and the haste shows. One of the trademarks of the Mrs. Murphy series is the author's introductory cast of characters list. This is half conceived, with only some of the regular residents of Crozet mentioned and none of the newcomers who traditionally fill the list of the dead, the suspects and the occasional new pal. Another trademark is that at some point in the story, you can count on a brawl of some sort breaking out at a social event. Nope. Big Mim and husband Jim, Little Mim and her husband, Aunt Tally, Tazio and Tracy hardly or not in evidence at all. The Christmas season should have given the author an opportunity to explore her community's traditions in comic yet respectful detail. Instead, even with the murders, it feels kind of eventless. Our human sleuth is injured and instead of solving the mystery with the lead of the pets who are always ahead of her, cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and dog Tucker, she's mostly recuperating and being protected. The mystery is more inane than simple.

And yet, it is better than no Crozet, no Harry and Fair, no animals. A friend who has had a lot of good days is having a bad one. That's all.

I was prepared to like my audio version of Santa Clawed. I really was. But then the author's heroine, Harry, made the most un-Christmasy, mean-spirited remark I have had the displeasure to read in a long, long time.

Okay, the remark that made me delete the book from my Ipod would probably have passed in another seasonal context, but not in one set at Christmas when the beautiful heroine and her beautiful rich friends have just spent the evening making Christmas decorations for their church celebration and reminiscing about the wonderful, generous Christmas films they used to see in high school...

On to the remark: Ms Harry is choosing a Christmas tree in the tree lot run by the Brothers of Love. She sees a small boy fall in love with a perfect spruce and tell his father that he would love that particular tree for their house. She comments that father and son look poor. She sees the expression on the face of the father and realizes the tree is too expensive for his budget, given the current economic situation. She considers an act of generosity - buying the tree for them. Then she changes her mind and says that the little kid has to "learn the value of money" and better sooner than later.

I cringed. Literally. Such hypocrisy and double think on the part of a fictional heroine who has just spent pages extolling the joys of the Christmas season, which as far as I can recall is about GIVING, freely from the heart, to strangers as to our own, broke the whole 'suspension of disbelief' spell for me. I said the B word out loud in reference to the heroine and the mind that created that awful gem and deleted the book.

I am a fan of RMB's earlier Mrs. Murphy mysteries. I have read about 6 or 7 prior to Santa Clawed. They were enjoyable and more than once I laughed out loud. Santa Clawed is way too preachy. RMB needs to get off the politics. Don't spend your dollars on this one.