Sour Puss (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]

Rita Mae Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 13th Mrs. Murphy mystery from bestseller Brown and her feline collaborator (after 2005's Cat's Eyewitness) opens with the comic-opera remarriage of series heroine Harry Haristeen and Fair, Harry's veterinarian ex-husband, reintroducing at length some familiar characters before turning to the novel's main focus—the vagaries of the burgeoning wine industry in the Virginia Piedmont. The prospect of having your own label or selling at a profit to another winery is too good to pass up, and even Harry and Fair have put in a quarter acre of Petit Manseng grapes. But someone is trying to scare off the competition, and the disappearance of a respected expert in the mutation of toxins sets Harry's talking pets—cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and corgi Tee Tucker—on the sleuthing trail. When a longstanding feud between rival vintners leads to murder, Harry has to read the clues before attrition gives us the answers. Brown provides a captivating look at grape growing and the passionate dedication it requires. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This venerable mystery series has been on a good run of late. Brown does everything right here, from creating a suspenseful plot to introducing readers to Virginia vineyards and the art of winemaking. Former postmistress Harry Haristeen has forgiven and remarried her errant spouse, the aptly named veterinarian Fair, and is making a go of it as a farmer. In addition to more traditional crops, Harry is dabbling in grapes, joining an increasing number of central Virginia vintners. The tiny town of Crozet is abuzz with the talk of grapes and how to protect the finicky crop when an outspoken wine grower is murdered. A competitor is blamed for his death, and suddenly the expensive hobby takes on a much more serious tone. As Harry tries to figure out why a non-native species of insect pest has appeared in her peach orchard, her animal companions--tiger cat Mrs. Murphy, corgi Tucker, and "big boned" feline Pewter--discover another body buried in the orchard. Brown seems more relaxed and comfortable with her characters in each new adventure, reenergizing a series that could easily have grown stale over time. Wine fanciers or not, readers will happily toast the animal-loving author for creating this robust and flavorful tale. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 852 KB
• Publisher: Bantam (February 28, 2006)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCKPGW
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)

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

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this one was sour..., March 7, 2006

By 

PNWmuse - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sour Puss (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The original charm of this series was the delightful camaraderie and interplay of the animals, amongst themselves and with their human companions. Harry as the heroine caught us all and we got swept up in the total life of Crozet from Big Mim to Pewter and every human and critter in between. This was especially so in using the display of the superior senses of the pets with the less discerning human senses, and how the animals' keen senses would play such a masterful part in the mystery and its solution. Especially if the reader, such as myself, has both a cat and a corgi in the family.
#12 in the series disappointed me very much. I felt it was getting away from the most attractive part of this series - the animals. (After all, doesn't Sneaky Pie help author these books?) I wondered at the time if I would even buy #13. And so did many of my friends.
I am now sorry to say that I have just finished #13 and my worst fears were imagined. The whole first half of the book reads like a personal agenda that tried to belong to a storyline. Where were our beloved critters? - where was the full description we came to expect in the development of the characters and the interplay of the plot with the critters and their humans. I read these books to step out of reality for awhile and to enjoy a storyline and characters that grab my interest to the point I feel as if they lived in the next town over. If the author wanted to tell us how she has assessed current day concerns and what her resolutions might be, she should have written a book to that effect. I will be checking the reviews before I purchase #14, if there is one.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sour Puss, April 21, 2006

By 

Corgi Fan (Wallace, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sour Puss (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Rita Mae Brown's characters are always a treat, and I look forward to each new book. But unfortunately, this one, was a a sour treatment. Too much techie information about grape growing and wineries, and not enough info about the wonderful characters and the usual antics of Mrs. Murphy, Tucker, Pewter and the horses. I have all of Ms. Brown's other books, and have loved them and re-read them often. This one, which sounded really interesting from the advance reviews and jacket info, just fell flat. A real disappointment.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad enough I won't buy another, August 23, 2006

By 

J. Hertz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sour Puss (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

I am a Rita Mae Brown fan and have been from her early novels on. I own and have read all of the "Mrs. Murphy" Mystery series. This book is awful. I can't believe she wrote it. I had to force myself to finish it. Characters did things that didn't work. The writing was just plain bad. Technical facts about wine and grapes and terrorism and you name it are thrown together and not wrapped in much story. Even the dialog is flat. I've enjoyed every topic Ms. Brown has tackled in the past because of her excellent writing so I concluded she is either ill, has writer's block, or had a crazy deadline that stopped the creative juices. Read any of the other books in the series, but don't bother with this one.