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Epicurus.com - Puss 'n Cahoots (Mrs. Murphy)
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List Price: $7.50
Our Price: $7.50
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780553586824
ISBN: 0553586823
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-01-29
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: 2008-01-29
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Reviews:
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Instead of a proper second honeymoon, the newly remarried Harry and Fair Haristeen leave cozy Crozet, Virginia, for Shelbyville, Kentucky, site of the famous saddlebred horse show. There they’ll visit dear friends Joan Hamilton and Larry Hodge and enjoy a week among some of the finest horses, trainers, and riders in the country.
But soon after they arrive, events veer mysteriously–and murderously–off course. First, Joan’s ruby and sapphire horsehead heirloom pin is stolen from her private box at the fairgrounds. Next, a young film star’s prize three-gaited mare disappears into thin air. There is no lack of suspects, from hotheaded trainers and jealous rivals to vicious ex-spouses. Then a body is found flagrantly murdered and it’s obvious to Harry that someone at Shelbyville is sending a strong message: winning is only secondary–first prize is survival.
As Harry searches for clues, rediscovers life as a married woman, and deals with her upcoming fortieth birthday, her four-legged detective friends are already on the case. But is animal instinct any match for human depravity? Especially with two humans to protect and a killer on the prowl?
From the Hardcover edition.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: They PAY editors to let this kind of trash go to press?
Comment: My mom found (literally "found") this book in her travels. She couldn't get past the first ten pages and passed it along to me. Her explanation was that she doesn't enjoy books with loads of characters. Now I've read sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, romance, heck even a little horror. I'm new to the RMB Cat series, and I'm just about half way through the book, but still can find little to recommend it. There are storycrafting techniques barely worthy of a first novel...certainly not a fortieth! For instance:
There are more characters in this story than are really necessary. Whenever an author puts a list of characters in the front (or back) of the book, that always sends up a red flag for me. If the reader can't keep track of the characters, the author has done a poor job bringing them to life. Does Harry really need to have TWO cats AND TWO dogs? True, I may have just ticked off all of RMB's fans with this, but a good author needs keep in mind that not everyone who reads this book has read everything else before it and needs to have EVERY character from EVERY previous installment appear (I'm looking at YOU, Spider Robinson!)
Do we have to make things extra confusing by giving our two main characters gender-confusing names? The guy is called "Fair" and the gal is called "Harry".
All of our protagonists have nothing but good qualities. This is so "Mary-Sue" it's insipid. The closest thing that comes to a fault is that Pewter is fat. Oh, and the humans can't sense as acutely as the animals. Oh, gee whiz!
On the one hand, there is w-a-a-a-y too much information on Saddlebred horses, and on the other, the information given seems rather pointless and is awkwardly jammed into the narrative...it doesn't flow from the characters' mouths. Fiction shouldn't have sidebars.
Probably the worst sin of all, is that the story has a lot of TELLING and very little SHOWING. What few descriptions there are seem to be brief, mechanical, and cursory. I know Pewter is gray, Murphy's a tiger, and Tucker's a corgi...but it took I don't know how many pages to find out that Cookie was a dog, much less a Jack Russel. I couldn't tell you what the humans looked like, other than Renata was beautiful, and Fair was tall and around 41.
I never thought I'd rip an author a new one over something as trivial as the Acknowledgments, but the sheer arrogance of those in this book earns RMB this rare privilege. Who the heck thanks their researcher in the first paragraph, a local physician in the second, and then writes this as a third paragraph, "You know how authors always write 'Whatever mistakes are made are entirely my own'? I much prefer to blame the above."?
I will not pay money to read anything by this author. Ever. I don't like giving my money to arrogant people.
I'm sorry, Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie, but this book is just plain sophomoric. I don't know which one of you is doing the majority of the writing, but I think it's time to pass it over to your partner. One of you is not doing a good job.
Customer Rating:
Summary: There are other contenders for your attention.
Comment: I loved this series. Rita Mae Brown had a winning combination with her plucky postmistress heroine Harry and her dog and cat sidekicks. The small town setting of Crozet was one I could identify with, the characters were people I could recognize (Southerners) and the dialog where the animal characters talked with one another was a delightful fantasy touch. The murders were gruesome but the ambiance was decidedly cozy. Having said that, I'm dreadfully disappointed in this book.
The setting, at the famous Saddlebred show in Shelbyville, KY, is well depicted with the glitz and glamor of fabulous horses competing in an electric atmosphere. I don't miss Crozet and I'm glad to see that Harry, remarried to and reunited with her ex-husband Fair, is finally being treated like she should.
But overall, the story is a disaster. There are many good mystery elements: a missing jewel, a stolen horse, a murdered man with double crosses cut in his hands. But the plotting is sloppy and the focus is away from the character of Harry. Read some other book. This is a weak entry in the series by an author who can write much better than this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting but NOT a Winner
Comment: Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy mysteries have begun to take on aspects of a soapbox...and it's irritating. What I found enjoyable in the earlier books were the interactions among the characters, human and animal, and the descriptions of the beautiful Virginia countryside. There's less and less of that now. Instead we're treated to personal harangues...and there's not even a balanced rebuttal or a respectable opposing perspective. I 've just begun reading the book after this one, "The Purrfect Murder" and it's even worse. But I'll withhold judgement until I'm finished with it. Still loyality keeps me going and I keep hoping the old Mrs. Murphy will come through in the end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is a mystery, right? Hello?
Comment: The Mrs. Murphy series has been a delight! While some series featuring animals prominently in the plot can easily put the reader into a diabetic coma, this series stands out because the animals have not overshadowed the main characters, who have been well-developed and have lived in a realistic world. It has been edgy and tart with good plots and murders galore in the small town of Crozet, Va., in each successive volume. We have heard the thoughts of the animals in italicized conversations that did not interrupt the unfolding of the plot and, in fact, often aided its flow. This series has had well structured plots and thoughtful character development while including the right amount of local and cultural history of that region as well as thorough but not overdone amounts of background explanatory detail of elements such as fox hunting, farming, and horses necessary to the story.
Unfortunately, however, "Puss'n Cahoots," like "Sour Puss" and "Cat's Eyewitness" before it, continues her disturbing and thoroughly annoying trend of forgetting that it's a mystery story and not a soapbox for the author's favorite cause(s) of the month. Long before the first murder, the story screeches to a halt several times with what I assume Ms. Brown believes are well-presented arguments for her currents favs: illegal immigration and performance enhancing drugs leading at the first turn. There was a time when Ms. Brown could deal with a issue she believes in with one or two well-crafted sentences without stopping the story in its tracks; perhaps she had an editor then. Now, we the reader are subjected to pages of preaching talking points ad nauseam which completely detract from the mystery, and this happens throughout the story! I actually found myself skimming through her sermonizing to try to find the story line again. When even the animals put on a surplice, Ms. Brown needs to remember that Crozet, VA. (or Shelbyville, KY) is not a part of Hyde Park, London, and get off her soapbox! Forget a tight plot with a suspenseful and foreboding atmosphere; forget a suspenseful climax; forget a tight denouement which ties up all the pieces neatly. These elements are barely present (or not here at all) as if they were afterthoughts because Ms. Brown was too busy preaching to craft a good mystery story instead of the weakly developed alleged mystery that is "Puss'n Cahoots."
I give "Puss'n Cahoots" two stars because Ms. Brown does include a lot of her trademark background information about her setting: Saddlebred horse shows and all therein. This is part of what made this series so good and once again I learned a lot. Otherwise, sadly, thumbs disappointedly down.
To rescue this series as a legitimate mystery series, Ms. Brown needs to do two things: (1) start writing real mysteries again, and (2) STOP preaching at us! Would Miranda Hogendobber put too many ingredients in her cinnamon buns and then tell us why we need to like them?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Going downhill
Comment: For this outing Fair and Harry are on their honeymoon at a horse show with all of Harry's pets along for the ride. Gone was the cozy feeling of the Post Office and her usual friends. The friendships in this book seemed forced. Too much time was spent on descriptions of horse shows. The dialog was dreadful and stilted as the author preached her political beliefs through her characters. I'm sad to say this is probably the last of the series that I'll read. In the past couple of books the author seems more concerned with preaching her political views rather than telling an engaging story. I miss the mysteries and fun of the earlier books. Heck, I even named my corgi, Tucker.
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