- This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books, Single Copy Magazines, and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free. Here's how (restrictions apply)
- Save $10 when you spend $50 and pay with Bill Me Later. The fast and convenient way to buy without using your credit card. Offer limited to items purchased from Amazon.com between July 14, 2008 and July 21, 2008. One per customer account. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Over a hundred thousand books are eligible for our 4-for-3 Books and DVD promotion. How do I find more eligible items?
Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
Pawing Through the Past
and over 140,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Better Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
The Tail of the Tip-Off by Rita Mae Brown  (19)
$7.50
|
Catch as Cat Can by Rita Mae Brown (30)
$7.50
|
Claws and Effect by Rita Mae Brown |
Murder on the Prowl by Rita Mae Brown  (24)
$7.50
|
Whisker of Evil (Brown, Rita Mae) by RITA MAE BROWN (35)
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
When a mystery author claims her cat as coauthor, it's a fairly safe bet that the team won't be producing disturbing psychological thrillers or hard-edged legal procedurals. And indeed, Rita Mae Brown and her cat, Sneaky Pie, have carved out a comfortable niche for themselves in the cozy category, spinning tales (Rest in Pieces; Murder, She Meowed; Cat on the Scent) around the goings-on in Crozet, a small Virginia town where everyone knows everyone else and recipes and gossip are exchanged over the post office counter. Mary Minor Haristeen ("Harry") is Crozet's postmistress and the proud owner of two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and one corgi, Tee Tucker--animals with an uncanny ability to sniff out secrets and hidden motives as well as mice and roast beef.
When a mystery author claims her cat as coauthor, it's a fairly safe bet that the team won't be producing disturbing psychological thrillers or hard-edged legal procedurals. And indeed, Rita Mae Brown and her cat, Sneaky Pie, have carved out a comfortable niche for themselves in the cozy category, spinning tales (Rest in Pieces; Murder, She Meowed; Cat on the Scent) around the goings-on in Crozet, a small Virginia town where everyone knows everyone else and recipes and gossip are exchanged over the post office counter. Mary Minor Haristeen ("Harry") is Crozet's postmistress and the proud owner of two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and one corgi, Tee Tucker--animals with an uncanny ability to sniff out secrets and hidden motives as well as mice and roast beef.
Pawing Through the Past capitalizes on the myriad subtle relationships that form the backbone of small-town culture, and which Brown and Sneaky Pie have carefully woven throughout the Mrs. Murphy series. In a nicely appropriate nod to that culture's rivalries and alliances, Brown has chosen a high school reunion--traditional hotbed of simmering unease--as her mise-en-scène. When each member of the Crozet High Class of 1980 receives an anonymous note stating, "You'll never get old," most take it as a joke or a compliment. But when the class womanizer turns up with a bullet between his eyes, and more notes--and more bodies--start appearing, Harry and her menagerie find themselves at the center of a revenge plot 20 years in the making.
Brown's latest is replete with the sly asides that have endeared her to animal lovers--"Cats are by instinct and inclination dedicated anarchists"--and with the naively humorous "conversations" between the animals themselves. When Pewter, watching a team of police officers wrestling a stiff corpse out of a dumpster, wonders, "Why don't they just break his arms and legs?" Murphy replies knowingly, "They'd pass out. Humans are touchy about their dead." Unfortunately, these favorable attributes can't quite mask an incoherent plot, nor Brown's awkwardly pompous social commentary: "By and large, the women looked better than the men, testimony to the cultural pressure for women to fuss over themselves." But Brown's legions of fans will doubtlessly forgive these shortcomings, concentrating instead on the antics of a memorable four-legged and furry trio. --Kelly Flynn
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her intrepid trio of animal sleuths are back for an eighth--and winsome--adventure (following Cat on the Scent). Harry, postmistress of seemingly bucolic Crozet, Va., and her classmates are excited about their upcoming 20th high school reunion. They share bittersweet memories of that time when everything seemed possible, as preparations proceed to welcome back far-flung classmates. But it quickly becomes apparent that one person's memories are only bitter: weeks before the celebration, each classmate receives an anonymous letter reading, "You'll never get old." The class Casanova then gets a bullet between the eyes; more threatening letters follow. While the humans involved argue, dither and try to figure out what's behind the murderous rage turning their reunion into a killing ground, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tee Tucker (Harry's sage tiger cat, plump gray cat and Welsh corgi, respectively) conduct their own investigation. Brown's appealing sense of humor, well-constructed setting and competent plotting carry the day. Her talking, thinking animals are funny and, for those who like this sort of thing, even adorable. Illus. by Itoko Maeno. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
|