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Epicurus.com - The Purrfect Murder (A Mrs. Murphy Mystery)
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List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $16.50
Your Save: $ 8.50 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553803655
ISBN: 0553803654
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2008-01-29
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: 2008-01-29
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Reviews:
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New York Times bestselling authors Rita Mae Brown and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, return with a new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker. But are they any match for a killer who’s made an entire town suspect by committing…
Autumn has arrived in cozy Crozet, Virginia, and that means the town’s inhabitants are hard at work in home and garden preparing for winter. Harry is planning to harvest her first crop of Petit Manseng grapes along with her beloved sunflowers. Meanwhile, her recent marriage to Fair and her friendship with Deputy Cynthia Cooper, who’s rented nearby Blair Farm, are flourishing. But even when peace descends on the idyllic countryside, murder is lurking.
Mrs. Carla Paulson is one of the diamond-encrusted “come-here” set who has descended on Crozet with plenty of wealth and no feeling for country ways. She’s determined to make her new house the envy of all her well-heeled friends—and enemies—and she’s hired architect Tazio Chappers to build it.
From the start, the project—and Mrs. Paulson—turns into a major headache relieved only by a side trip to study Thomas Jefferson’s extraordinary summer home at Poplar Forest. Harry couldn’t foresee that a day later Mrs. Paulson would be found stabbed to death at a gala fund-raiser with Harry’s friend, Tazio Chappers, standing over her, holding the knife.
Now Harry must solve what seems to everyone else an open-and-shut case. Every other human, that is. For her four-legged friends see it Harry’s way. But will they have to choose between catching the purrfect killer or saving Harry?
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Frustrating At Best
Comment: This is the most frustrating read I have ever experienced. All the characters are defined at the front of the book for a reason: one has to constantly go back to see who is who. The pets have names, too!!! Many times the dialogue is from the standpoint of the cats. I'm sorry I ever bought this book. It will be donated to a library for people who have far more time on their hands than myself. I stopped reading 1/3rd into the book. I will not purchase other books by the author for they will likely be as frustrating to read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: stereotype-feast
Comment: Rita Mae Brown use this novel as a vehicle to push her pro-infanticide views. All the liberal shibboleth are there, all the so-called arguments of the last 30 years, all the grammatical engineering like "reproductive rights", "pro choice" and other manipulative euphemisms are present. all pro-life people are described as greedy jerks or perverts and all pro-infanticide people are described as compassionate (the compassion does not extend to the victim babies of "choice", of course). In short: her worse book to date!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!
Comment: I couldn't put this book down. I got so engrossed it it. Can't wait for the next one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Some things don't add up
Comment: I enjoyed the early books in this series, but like many other reviewers, am getting tired of the politics involved. Also, while I appreciate the descriptions of life in rural Virginia, is it necessary for Ms. Brown to trash people from other areas?
I'm also noticing inconsistencies, some of which have already been pointed out by others. One that I noticed that hasn't been brought up yet is that Big Mim states to Little Mim that she never had an abortion, but in an earlier book in which a doctor is poring through old medical records, it is revealed that Big Mim did, in fact, have an illegal abortion. Either Ms. Brown is getting sloppy or Big Mim lied to her daughter. Hmmm....
Please, RMB, be more thorough and get back to the plain old mystery telling and animal banter that got you your fans in the first place.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It Takes A Village
Comment: (More like 3.75 stars compared to other books in the series.) Some of the reviews actually discouraged me from going to this latest Mrs. Murphy mystery as soon as it arrived. I thought, hmmm, so series fatigue must have got it. In fact, it is not bad; not the best, but it should not disappoint most regular readers. I like the world Rita Mae Brown has realized through this series, a rural western Virginia town (the very real Crozet) that over the years has grown urbanized rural. RMB uses the excuse of murder and detection fiction to explore how its Southern heart remains stolid as it absorbs newcomers and the challenges of living in the 21st century. In this outing, a popular OB/GYN who has performed some terminations is killed, but after a militant antiabortionist confesses and is jailed, past patients are blackmailed, seemingly by the same culprit. This gives RMB a chance to look at the impact of one of the most divisive issues of modern times in a place where opinions clash but people need to stick together. Her regular crew of characters falls on both sides. RMB treats both sides gently.
As usual, the human characters' pets have their own conversations which the adults never get and if they did, the mysteries would be solved long before they are. In light of how the ubiquitous CSI television shows have educated the populace, the human characters, including the actual law enforcement officers, seem to ignore key evidence or lack thereof until it is almost too late. It doesn't really matter that much to me; I value this series for its social observations and wit, and it has both.
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