Sour Puss

I stumbled onto this series when I was looking around for a new series to start. I have read all including the latest "Santa Clawed". I alway look forward to the next book.

I really enjoy all the books by Ms. Brown and Sneaky Pie. I don't understand why everyone seems so outraged by this one. So she goes on about certain subject matters. I didn't think it was that bad at all. A fiction book that actually tries to teach you something, what is the world coming to...

I have read all of of Rita Mae Brown's books in this series and this one is a quick but enjoyable read. I was guessing pretty much up to the very end. Fair and Harry are now remarried and she and Susan are going into busines together. Grapes for wine making are the new thing in Crozet and even Harry is on the bandwagon. However the reapearance of an old lover and the mysterious disappearance of a college professor start the ball rolling. As always Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tucker not only find clues but manage to get the humans to understand. I admit that when the evil doer gets theirs I flinched more than once. The two cats are assited this time by Simon the possum, Matilda the black snake and even Flat Face the owl gets into the act. I enjoyed this book and I think you will too.

I don't read the Mrs. Murphy mysteries because animals talk, and I don't really read them for the whodunnits because, in truth, they are fairly simplistic. I read them because of the world Rita Mae Brown evokes in and around rural Albemarle County, Virginia and how she looks at what is changing and what will always be with us in the South and, for that matter, humanity. I think she done good this time. SOUR PUSS introduces some left turns that were foreshadowed in the last two books in the series, and I am happy to report that the turns were taken on a stable axis. Our heroine, Mary (Harry) Minor Hairsteen has agreed to remarry her ex-husband and she has left the postmaster job behind. There are no regrets with the job, and in terms of the marriage, I think all the cute-happy cooing of the newlyweds beats Harry's previous, much drawn out fence-sitting. She helps husband Fair with raising foals on her family farm and has diversified her agricultural ventures, having planted grapes and revived an old peach orchard. She and pal Susan are also raising nursery stock. Her new interests put her right at the center of the exploding development of local wineries and post 9-11 fears of agriterrorism, not to mention global warming. The mystery asks, what do we have to fear most, the global or the local threat, nature or human? It also talks about trust. Of course, this isn't CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, it isn't intended to be and how could it be when animals talk and disrupt social events and the humans can't seem to make it through a party without a slapstick brawl. All the same, I think there is more to this series than there is in most "cozy" mysteries.

After Fair cheated on Mary "Harry" Minor they separated as she nursed her anger and hurt for years. Fair spent years trying to reconcile with Harry and after a few years his perseverance finally paid off. They remarried in a church with all their close friends as witnesses including their pets Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tucker. Many of the residents, including Harry are growing grapes so that they can make wine from them. Professor Vincent Farland lectures on how bioterrorism can be used to destroy crops. He once taught two vintners in the area; Toby Pittman, an unstable person, who thinks people are out to destroy Rockland Vineyards, and Arch Saunders who become the partner of Rollie Barnes, the owner of Spring Hill Vineyard. Arch had an affair with Harry when she divorced Fair and he wants her back. Professor Farland disappears and the police think foul play is involved. Toby calls Fair to look at his donkey's cut on his hind leg, but he finds him murdered, by a gunshot. When the professor is found buried on Harry and Fair's land, suspicion falls on him. Harry thinks the two murders are linked and the same person who killed them is responsible for the deadly insects planted on their land. When a third vintner is killed, Harry struggles to put the pieces together even if it means exposing herself to danger. Once again Rita Mae Brown and her collaboration with Sneaky Pie Brown has written a delightful, charming and intense amateur sleuth mystery. Part of the charm of this series is that the animals can communicate with each other across species lines and their conversations and actions win the hearts of the audience. Now that Harry and Fair are married the love they feel for one another is obvious and adds to the tale. Ms Brown has written another enthralling mystery that makes her readers feel enchanted with her storyline. Harriet Klausner