Customer Reviews

Whisker of Evil

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Mrs. Murphy mystery series is like a favorite pair of old slippers. I'll read one no matter what, but I think this particular volume shows new life. Although I don't have the objectivity of someone who has never read any of the books by the team of Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown, I think a newcomer could easily join the club with WHISKER OF EVIL. It defines old characters and references to past events and purveys the strengths of the series. Comparing this book to others in the series and to its genre, it gets 5 stars.

The chief strength I find is that Brown succeeds in satirizing the "cozy" mystery genre at the same time she pays homage to it. She has created some genial though not uncomplicated regular characters and a world that she does not puncture even when shaking things up, which she does considerably this time around. She is realistic (well, as realistic as you get when animals have their own lines of dialogue). What began in her first books as a speck on a rural map of Virginia, the town of Crozet in Albemarle County, has become urbanized rural. Government regulations plague postmistress/heroine Mary ("Harry") Hairsteen. You can see the whole South grappling with its past, present and future through this series. In deceptively simple prose, she conveys a strong sense of how time and the world catch up with the individual.

The mystery itself is predictable. But who really reads or even writes "cozies" as brainteasers? Brown is having a lot of fun. She exercises a lot of knowledge about horse culture and airs her views on growth, government, taxes, ageing, and humanity, not to mention tourists who visit the real town of Crozet and don't find it as cute as they think a setting in a "cozy" should be.

Rita Mae Brown, along with her cat Sneaky Pie, writes excellent mysteries set in the small town of Crozet, Virginia, with Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen, the local postmistress, as the protagonist. Helping her are her three pets, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter--the cats--and Tucker--the corgi. All three animals carry on lively conversations and investigate along with Harry, even though none of the humans can understand them.

This mystery concerns the death of Barry Monteith, a local horse breeder. Even more mysterious is that fact that Barry, although viciously murdered, was also infected with rabies. Harry soon finds the class ring of Mary Pat Reines, a local horsebreeder who disappeared in 1967 with her prize stallion. Two more deaths soon follow, and the entire close-knit town is shaken, trying to discover the murderer and the source of Barry's rabies.

The only flaw with this book, and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars, is the author's fascination with horses. An excellent horsewoman (horseperson?) herself, she includes quite a bit of breeding information in the novel, which is interesting until she goes on for several pages about it. You can't skip it, though--there are clues enclosed in it. Fans of the series will do fairly well with the information, as Brown has given us a great deal about horses in all of her books, but it does drag after a while.

This book is very integral to the series, and many events that affect the entire series take place in it. For this reason, I don't recommend it to new readers. Pick up "Wish You Were Here" or "Rest in Pieces," the first two books in the series. Not only will you get the horse information, but you'll be better introduced to the marvelous cast of characters. Brown always includes a cast of characters in her novels--one that encompasses both animals and people--but you'll love getting the history of the characters!

Bottom Line: An excellent cozy for small-town people, cat-lovers, horse-lovers, anyone! Series-altering events take place in it, though, so it's not recommended for first-time readers. Other than that, enjoy the wonderful 3-dimensional characters and excellent plot!

When I bought this book, I realized that it was part of a series and in fact, the very last addition in it. I thought that I may have had a hard time understanding the characters and other important facts about this book. But, it didn't matter that I read the last book. Rita Mae Brown made it possible so that you could read this book first and still understand the whole story. I thouroughly enjoyed this book.

Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen and her fellow animal companions have another mystery up their sleeves. A local horsebreeder has been murder. The catch is that this man also had rabies. Soon, Harry is following a trail of clues and reopened the disappearance of a horse breeder from 30 years ago. She feels that the 2 cases may be connected.

At the same time, Harry's post office will be moved into a new building with new rules, prohibiting her cats and dog from helping her with her job.

This book has many unsuspecting twists. I highly recommend it to any mystery or animal lovers.

I picked this up at random. I'm a cat lover so the premise didn't sound bad on the cover. I liked the animals. They were fine. Next time, I will research a series a little better. I expected it to be fluff but I was not prepared for the almost non-stop preaching. Everyone in town is the best. Horse people are better than the rest of Virginia. Virginia is better than the north. Pity those foolish non-hardworking non-Christians. Good writting? Forget it. Just throw in another adverb inexpertly.
If you like Christian mystery fluff, have at. Enjoy. Personnally, I am going now to finish the last three chapters in hopes that at the end, one cat will turn to the other and say "Man, these people are full of crap."

Oh well...so Ms. Brown's books are as some would call 'light-weight'. And others would say she is anthromorphizing the creatures in these books (giving the man-like abilities they don't have...like reasoning...man doesn't do such a hot job with that ability anyway!) These books are fun reads, and no, I am not suggesting murder is 'fun'. For years, I've tried to figure out why so many people enjoy reading murder mysteries. It's kind of like why everyone seems to enjoy CSI and forensics. It's the problem-solving part of the mysteries, as well as the characterization that people enjoy. In Ms. Brown's books, those of us who have and love animals recognize that they often seem to have more abilities then we give them credit for. They certainly love to play as anyone with cats and dogs can attest to.

The plotting in this particular book was a little off this time. And the solution, even though I figured out is was the particular person involved, I certainly would not yell out that fact at a public place, with no regard as to my own or others safety. 'Harry' is a bit impulsive sometimes...a bit too impulsive. I am glad to see her making some changes in her life that have been long in coming (for the readers of these books).

Karen Sadler

First off I'd give another half-star rating, as I did enjoy the book, and I must really like the series a lot, as I keep coming back for more.
I won't summarize the plot, as that is the job of the book jacket, and many of the other reviewers have done an excellent job of that already.
I do really enjoy learning about something besides forensics (although those are pretty fascinating too), during the course of a mystery...for instance, I had no IDEA that fox hunting was such a complicated sport, I thought you just got on the horse, used good manners in the field, and chased the critter. Typical nawthenah...
The beauty, grace, complexity and depth of Southern culture is presented here in Ms. Brown's Crozet series and while of COURSE it is seen as superior to that of the Northerners and Westerners, she does not rub your face in it to the point where you just dismiss Crozetians as small-town Southern Snobs.
When having animals use human speech to communicate between species, it is difficult not to fall into either omniscience or over-cuteness, and both the Brown ladies seem to negotiate this fence line fairly well. What I have trouble with are the little errors... for instance, what sex IS Harry's horse Gin Fizz? In one book, she is a mare, in another he is a gelding, and in this book, s/he is both. Now THERE is a mystery if you like....
Also, Harry, who is by her own admission emotionally inhibited, is very much out of character with her accusation "You did it!" directed at the murderer during the burial. This may be sort of rationalized by the preceeding events just sort of blowing the cork out of the bottle, but it is not in character for Harry, who usually does think things through...and THEN she goes ahead and does something risky.
All in all, this was an improvement over the last two of the series, as things are MOVING again. I am looking forward to the next one...and must admit I AM curious as to what kind of foal Boom-Boom's mare will drop.

No one in their right mind would suggest that Rita Mae Brown's "Mrs. Murphy" mystery series is in the same league with such earlier works as RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE, but doubtlessly Brown laughs all the way to the bank: the series has proven very popular, and in truth when it comes to ultra-light amusements one could do far worse than waste an afternoon in Brown's fictional Crozet, Virginia.

Like all books in the series, WHISKER OF EVIL returns us to the host of small-town characters of which we've grown so fond. Postmistress Mary "Harry" Harristein reigns supreme over the tiny town's equally tiny post office, surrounded by an amusing assortment of friends and acquaintances--not the least of which are her two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and her dog, Tucker. And when Harry stumbles over a dying man while walking along Potlicker Creek, her animals are as curious about the situation as she.

Brown has never really bothered to construct a tightly designed plot for any of the Mrs. Murphy novels, and while the motive and means for murder prove particularly ingenious in this novel the story itself is loose even in comparison to previous titles in the series. Still, it's all in good fun, and longtime fans of the series will be greatly interested to note that with WHISKER OF EVIL Brown begins to alter the course of her characters' lives with a host of changes that come for both good and ill. Recommended for a rainy day!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I've read all her books in this series and the change has definitely piqued my curiosity. Just have to find out what's going to happen with Fair and Harry . . . . My vote for new occupation for Harry: winery operation. It would fit perfectly with that part of VA. And she finally mentioned Harrisonburg in the story! One of her better ones.

This is the twelfth book in this seris. With other writer, ennui tends to set in at this point and the writer either rehashes previous plots or loses interest in the characters or the storyline and it shows. That is absolutely NOT the case with this book.

The main characters and the setting of rural Virginia are a major part of the charm of this series. The fact that this series is a spoof on the detective genre is also part of the fun. Having cats, dogs, horses, possums, birds, and foxes all talking to one another and filling in the gaps in the human knowledge base is also part of the fun. Finally, the climatic scene in which the murderer is exposed and the cats and dog have to swing into action to save some humans has also become a standard part of the plots. The mystery itself was surprisingly easy to resolve for me, but I was still assidously reading the text to keep up with what happens next.

The real fun of this series is to explore the author's depth of knowledge and love of the Virginia countryside. The reader is rewarded with descriptions and explanations of why southerners seem to be lazy; how the virginia aristocracy works; and - in this volume - a lot about the horse breeding culture.

The mystery itself involves a disappearance of a local woman 30 years before and its links to a rabies-infected murdered person in the present. By the time the tangled web is completely unwoven you have learned a lot about what seems to go on beneath the placid-seeming surface of this small town.

For longtime readers of this series, be prepared! There are some major developments in what I call the "soap opera" lines. The various people to people relationships are explored and are developed ... sometimes to a surprising degree.

The only discordant note to me was that the author has chosen to become more apparent in her discussion of her own social poilitics. This was always a part of the series, but in this volume, it takes another step forward. My fear is that this factor would become more prominent and would distract from the wonderful world that she has created.

Nonetheless this is a delightful read and fun for those who have followed this series for years.

A man I know refuses to read any book written by a female, convinced that women feel the need to add too much detail to the narrative. He says, "If I'm driving down the road, I don't care if I pass a yellow house with a white picket fence and a dog tied up in the yard. I just want to get to where I'm going." While I've shaken my head at his chauvinistic view, it has caused me to pay more attention to differences in writing styles. Maybe the variety is somewhat gender-based, maybe it isn't.

"Whisker of Evil" includes a lot of detail that doesn't always seem to "get us where we're going." The murder on the first page demands our immediate attention. And those of us who are fans of this series will enjoy watching Harry, Fair, Susan, Miranda, Cooper, Rich, all the animals and the elite of the Crozet equine community figure out what's going on in their neighborhood. But there are multiple instances when the action is stalled by extraneous explanation and back story. It happens often enough that I took notice and wondered how much of the information I'd have to recall down the line. Having faith in the author, I continued on. If not for that, I could easily have abandoned the book and gone on to something else. Maybe I've been reading too many male authors and/or quicker and shorter mysteries lately! Or maybe my reading tastes are changing.

I've read many of Brown's books with pleasure. I love her technique of sharing the animals' communications through the use of italics. This is the first Mrs. Murphy Mystery that was slow for me. It won't stop me from reading her future work, for I especially want to know what ensues from the recent changes in Harry's life. My advice is to pick up this volume knowing that there's A LOT going on in it. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)