Cat on the Scent (Hardcover)

by Rita Mae Brown (Author)
Key Phrases: gin fizz, animal door, Vane Tempest, Tommy Van Allen, Archie Ingram (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The animals in Crozet, Virginia, are a lot smarter than the humans, which will come as no surprise to the devoted fans of Rita Mae Brown's mysteries featuring Mrs. Murphy the tiger cat, the luxury-loving feline known as Pewter, and Tee Tucker, a curious corgi. In their seventh outing, they're leaps and bounds ahead of Harry Haristeen, the spunky postmistress they call Mom. Long before anyone else knows what's going on, they've figured out the connection between the shot fired at wealthy Sir Henry Vane-Tempest during the reenactment of a Civil War battle and a missing airplane hidden in Tally Urquhart's barn. They're better at finding evidence trampled underfoot at a crime scene than any detective is, and they know just whose lap to drop it in. While they might not understand exactly why county commissioner Archie Ingram is so exercised about Vane-Tempest's plans for development in Albemarle County--particularly when it promises to make him as wealthy as the husband of the woman he loves--they've sniffed out the sexual shenanigans that threaten to derail the private pact between Crozet's leading citizens. If Harry and her friends knew what the animals know, there'd be no mystery about it; there'd only be a charming and lighthearted story of chicanery in the new Old South with plenty of local color, the scent of lilacs wafting through every page, and the deft prose of a writer on top of her game. But then, there'd be no raison d'etre for the liveliest scene in the book, wherein Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tee take a turbo-charged Porsche for a breakneck ride through Virginia's verdant hills and dales. By the end of the book, the only mystery is whether Harry and Fair, her favorite ex-husband, will manage to get back together again in the next installment--or the one after that--of this popular series. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
The latest collaboration (after last year's Murder on the Prowl) between Brown and her feline muse is a charming and keen-eyed take on human misdeeds and animal shenanigans. Mrs. Murphy, the cat sleuth, out for an evening prowl, spots a small plane landing near an abandoned barn. Soon after, at an Albemarle County (Va.) Commission meeting, dissension arises over plans for a new reservoir, and two murders ensue. The owner of the plane, Tommy Van Allen, disappears, only to turn up later, frozen stiff in the refrigerator of a local food plant. Next, during a Civil War battle reenactment, a local landowner, Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, is shot in the back. Mrs. Murphy, ably aided by Tee Tucker the corgi and Pewter the cat, nudges the humans around her into finding evidence to braid all these stray strands. She even orchestrates a daring rescue. Told with spunk and plenty of whimsy, this is another delightful entry in a very popular series. Illustrations by Itoko Maeno not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Printing edition (March 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055309971X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553099713
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #610,650 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Marvellous Mrs. Murphy Does It Again, October 23, 2002

By	Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Cat on the Scent (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

The sixth "Mrs. Murphy Mystery," featuring Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her pets (Mrs. Murphy, the tiger cat; Tee Tucker, the corgi bitch; and Pewter, the fat gray cat who used to live in Market Shifflett's grocery), takes some interesting new tangents. There's a Civil War re-enactment, a haughty Britisher who gets shot (not fatally) in the very midst of the fray, a small plane hidden in an old stone barn, and a missing pilot; a dismaying discovery by the three animals in a pit full of discarded farm machinery, and the revelation it leads to; an appearance by the Reverend Herb Jones's cats, Elocution and Lucy Fur, who've been mentioned but never introduced before in the series; a cabal that may or may not be illegal but is certainly leading to some strange doings; and a murder that goes unsolved, even by the notoriously nosy Mrs. Murphy.

The high point of the novel, though, has to be the astonishing scene in which Tucker and the cats, having discovered Harry's neighbor Blair Bainbridge lying in his Porsche freshly shot, contrive to literally drive the car home to their mistress so she can call for help. It sounds incredible, but as Brown has set it up (foreshadowing with a newspaper story about a dog ticketed for driving without a license), it just seems a believable outgrowth of a series in which animals talk to one another, read the mail and the newspaper, and help solve crimes while still acting plausibly like animals. A not-to-be- missed entry.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly enjoyable, but not greatly memorable, January 23, 2002

By	Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cat on the Scent (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Although I'll still give it three stars for the simple reason that Rita Mae Brown writes with enjoyable style, I can't recommend CAT ON THE SCENT as highly some others in the "Mrs. Murphy" series. Brown's mystery novels have always been more about funny characters than plot, but this particular novel pretty much throws plot completely out the window.

CAT ON THE SCENT finds Mary "Harry" Harristeen (the young postmistress of tiny Crozet, Virginia) and her friends (both human and animal) drawn into a series of mysterious deaths that may or may not have something to do with a proposed reservoir. As usual, the writing is bright and the characters (including the felines Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and canine Tee Tucker) are entertaining... but on this occasion Brown seems to be straining her concept of animal characters, the overall novel seems unfocused, and many readers will find the conclusion frustrating. Mildly enjoyable, but not greatly memorable.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating, April 24, 2000

By	Ellen C. Falkenberry "ellenf" (Birmingham, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cat on the Scent (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Personally, I like to see the killers in a cozy little mystery "get theirs" in the end. This one doesn't tie up the loose ends to my liking. Also, some of the animal action is just a little hard to take...even for me, a mother of 3 cats. Sorry.. not my fave. I'd like to see a series spin off from Riding Shotgun...