Whisker of Evil: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery

This is, I believe, the worst book I have ever finished. A full catalog of its crimes would take several pages, but I shall try to restrain myself.

It is written in cliche-ridden, awkward English that is often incorrect; its characters are thinly drawn and tiresome, and its heroine verges on Mary-Sueism, so competent, virtuous, and beautiful is she. After all, if she cared about dressing well, she'd be the prettiest gal in town, and her blond, muscular, broad-chested veterinarian ex-husband wants her back sooooo much! Ah well, so much for restraining myself.

Perhaps most unforgiveable, after the ear-grating language, is the idealized setting in rural Northern Virginia, which comes with a pervasive assumption that people in rural N. VA show more have discovered the One True Way to live, and are nicer, more civilized, and just generally better than all others. I suppose no one told Rita Mae and her cat that the book would be distributed in many other places.

Anyway, the 'mystery' is not horrible, but I solved it fairly early on, and finished the book largely to see how long it would take Mary Sue to do so. The payoff was worth it, since she discovered so late in the game, and the consequences of her discovery were so appallingly melodramatic and badly thought out that my combined rage and laughter nearly caused me to crash my car when I got to that point in the audiobook.

About the reading: The reader was dreadful too. I guess her accents were nice enough, but her own awkward understanding of grammatical structure compounded the problems of the book, and her lack of proper emotional tone layered with that of the characters. ("I just found a man I know and like dying of a gushing neck wound! Ho-hum! How was YOUR day, strangely-named cardboard cutout character 3A?") show less

A mysterious death in a Virginia farm town has the locals scratching their heads—while frisky feline Mrs. Murphy and her friends, fat-cat Pewter and corgi Tee Tucker, uncover clues as they curl their way around a cold-blooded killer.

This balmy summer in Crozet, Virginia, postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen has a lot to think about. Things have been pretty cozy between her and her ex-husband, Fair and her beloved old post office is in danger of being replaced with a modern building—and modern rules. Harry’s thoughtful contemplation is shattered the day she stumbles over a dead body near Potlicker Creek. Barry Monteith, the handsome local horse breeder, has been savagely murdered. A true ladies’ man, Barry was known to show more have left a string of broken hearts behind him. But could a spurned lover be responsible for his untimely demise?

The plot only thickens when an autopsy reveals that Barry was infected with rabies weeks before he was killed. As usual, Harry can’t resist doing a little digging—with Mrs. Murphy close by to warn of approaching danger. Harry makes a remarkable discovery in the creek—the class ring of Mary Pat Reines, a local woman who disappeared thirty years earlier along with her prized Thoroughbred stallion. Like Barry, Mary Pat was a successful horse breeder—and now all of Crozet is wondering if the two cases are linked. As the police struggle with the evidence, the pressure gets hotter than a June afternoon—especially when another person is found dead of less-than-natural causes. As usual, Mrs. Murphy and her crew are the first to sniff out the truth.

But if they don’t find a way to help Harry piece together the puzzle, she could become the killer’s next target—and even Mrs. Murphy’s slinkiest moves won’t be able to save her. show less

This is the only book in the series that I have read. I liked the fact that I didn't feel lost in the book; characters and relationships were explained from previous books, but without so much detail that I felt bogged down.

It was a pretty slow going. I enjoyed the animal chatting, but did not like the way that the book bolded and italicized the text that they spoke (making my eyes instantly jump to that text when I turned a page). The animals also seemed a bit arrogant.

I'm not really a mystery fan, so I'm not shocked that I didn't appreciate this book that much. I read it for a book group that I run at the library. I likely won't pick up another for personal reading.0

Enjoyed this read. Tight plot, good characters and the pace was right. You did get a hint of who might have done it, or rather I had a suspicion but couldn't quite put my finger on it till it was revealed. Felt is was a good use of my reading time and I wanted to get back to it each time I put it down.

#12 in the series featuring Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen and her cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and her Welsh Corgi, Tucker. This book opens with Harry finding Barry Monteith, a horse breeder and neighbor, dying, with his throat ripped out in what is assumed to be a wild animal attack. Later, it’s determined that it wasn’t—he was killed by human hands and a knife, but the odd thing is, the autopsy also reveals that he had rabies. Since Barry essentially dies in Harry’s arms, she’s quite shaken and her life goes topsy-turvy when the word of rabies gets out—first in Barry, and then in his business partner who ends up dying from it. The animal control officer, who begins to doggedly investigate the rabies also ends up show more dead—shot in the head—hours after telling Harry and the Postmaster that according to regulations she can no longer have her animals with her at the Post Office. I always enjoy these books, but this entry in the series was a little darker than some and slightly off-kilter, but that’s possibly due to Harry’s changing circumstances. I spotted the bad guy right away again, but wasn’t sure why the murders were committed until further along as the clues fell into place. Still, a mostly light, enjoyable listen, easy to concentrate on while unpacking and sorting and such. show less

Another great read. This is my fourth or fifth book in this series. I really enjoy the characters especially the animals. Having a corgi and two cats myself, I am always amused by how well the author depicts and interprets the behavior of her animals. It makes one look at one's own animals in a different light.

Being a clergyman, I did pick up on one inaccuracy in her description of her pastor's vestments. Not that it made a hill of beans to the story. It is just something I noted. She describes in two places what is typically called a stole as a surplice. A surplice is a white short garment worn overtop of a cassock. It typically has short billowing sleeves and is waist length. A stole on the other hand is the cloth that drapes over the show more neck and is usually the color of the season and may have religious symbols embroidered in it. It a stole that she refers to when she is describing her pastor's colorful and ornately decorated surplice. show less

12th volume in the series. The emphasis on rabies in this book makes it compelling, and provides a natural point of the interest for the animal characters. Similarly the attention paid to the life developments of the major series characters keeps this series from failing and gives Brown a chance to comment on larger issues, such as regional development, in a natural fashion. The mystery is not especially complex, but the book, like most cozies, is principally one about the people rather than the mystery.