Cat of the Century (2010)

The Cat of the Century, the 18th in the line of Sneaky Pie Browne mysteries, concerns, as usual, murder.

I enjoyed the plot-line part of this mystery, as always--a little light and not too hard to figure out who did it, but enjoyable.

I am coming more and more to object, however, to the endless preaching of Rita Mae Brown on whatever her current political agenda happens to be. This book was by far the worst in that respect, and while I think it's proper as an author to include your own political/environmental/criminal justice/racial/gay agendas, to name but a few, after awhile it gets real old. Especially as each view is not integrated into the plot, but takes the form of a diatribe given by whatever character comes to hand.

I hope Ms. Brown tones down her soap-box preaching in future novels, or I'll have to start thinking about whether it's worth the effort (and boredom) to read them. ( )

Good story, way too much of the author jamming her personal opinion about taxes into the mouths of her human characters. ( )

Good series, but not the best one in it.

More here:

http://eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/book-3.html ( )

Rita went to the college of focus in this book as a requested speaker and fell in love with the campus and their Midwest values. Then she decided to focus a story around it.

While the book was not bad and the mystery was ok, I felt that it had an old lady/biddy quality to it (and it really did--she was 100 yrs old that Aunt Tally).

I don't think it is me, I think Rita needs to retire. Her cookie cutter characters are sooo predictable and maple syrupy wholesome. Takes me many chapters to get into the book. She can't write any romance for straights to save her life. What gets me thru the books is the animals talking to each other--and that is a small part of the book.

Rita, rest on your pile of money and your laurels. Or find a way to write the way you did when you started out--like Bingo. Those were the GOOD books. ( )

I have enjoyed all of the Sneaky Pie Brown books and pretty much all the RMB books I have read....up until now! She seems way more interested in having a platform for her opinions and politics than developing a good story. The book was preachy, slow and kind of boring. I mostly agree with most of her opinions but this is a novel and I want a good story! ( )