Sneaky Pie Brown

It’s no secret that cats are a mystery writer’s best friend. Just ask the bestselling team of Rita Mae Brown and her furry partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, back on the prowl with another unforgettable whodunit. This time a controversial miracle in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains sparks religious fervor–and a suspicious death. Now the indefatigable felines Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, along with the dogged corgi Tee Tucker, must trust their animal instincts to sniff out the worst of human nature....

With the holidays approaching, Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen and her best friend, Susan Tucker, take a much-needed time-out at the mountain monastery of Mount Carmel. There, under the benevolent gaze of the statue of the Virgin Mary, their worldly worries are soon overshadowed. For in front of their very eyes the statue begins to cry tears of blood.

Legend has it that Mary’s crimson tears are harbingers of crises. And though skeptical, the ever-practical Harry can already see one on the horizon. If leaked, news of the so-called miracle could turn the monastery and the town of Crozet into a circus. What Harry doesn’t foresee is murder.…

When Susan’s great-uncle Thomas, a resident monk, is found frozen to death at the base of the statue, foul play is ruled out–at first. But at Harry’s urging, the body is exhumed for an autopsy. There’s just one problem: the coffin is empty. That’s when Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker get involved. Then there’s the shocking revelation of a mystery that has perplexed the citizens of Crozet for ages.

With Christmas around the corner and the monastery overrun by the faithful, all Harry’s meddling menagerie can do is stay on her trail as she jumps knee-deep into an unofficial investigation–one that becomes more dangerous when another Crozet citizen meets an untimely demise. In this case it will be a miracle if Harry stays alive....… (more)

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 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.… (more)

Although they don’t attend the women’s college basketball game with their beloved but (by animal standards) dimwitted owner, Harry Haristeen, the postmistress of Crozet, Virginia, Tucker the soulful-eyed corgi, Pewter the prototypical fat cat, and Mrs. Murphy, feline sleuth extraordinaire, all know exactly what will happen the moment they learn that the game has ended with philandering building contractor H.H. Donaldson dead in the arena parking lot: Harry will soon be wondering (1) how that lethal bump got on his neck without anybody noticing, (2) whom he was having his latest affair with, and (3) whether archrival builder Matthew Crickenberger, pertinacious building inspector Fred Forrest, and Donaldson’s long-suffering wife Anne can produce alibis. Of course, despite the help of her best friend Susan and even the complicity of her longtime rival for the affections of Boom Boom, her ex-husband, Harry is slower to ferret out the murder weapon than her pets (or devotees of John Dickson Carr, for that matter), and Mychelle Burns, another building inspector, will die while water drip-drip-drips from the arena ceiling and Tucker, Pewter, and Mrs. Murphy are forced to sink their teeth, claws, and all available paws into an exceptionally avaricious pair of evildoers.… (more)

CATCH AS A CAT CAN

Spring has come to the Blue Ridge Mountains, and spring fever to the tiny town of Crozet. As the annual Dogwood Festival approaches, romantic maneuvers are rampant. Even equable postmistress Mary
Minor “Harry” Haristeen inadvertently snatches a blind date from under the nose of manhunter Lottie Pearson, the university fundraiser.

As for Mrs. Murphy, her interest in the exploding bird population is intensified by Pewter’s discovery of a dead rare woodpecker near the back porch. Feline intuition tells her more mysteries lie ahead. And they do.

A case of stolen hubcaps seems relatively straightforward until the truck that transported them to the unsuspecting O’Bannon brothers’ upscale salvage yard turns out to be completely untraceable. And while everybody deplores the tipsy, raunchy behavior of young mechanic Roger O’Bannon, nobody is sure it accounts for his sudden death over a sobering cup of coffee. But when his brother Sean will not authorize an autopsy and presses on with preparations for the Wrecker’s Ball, the climax of the season’s junketing, people start to whisper.

Then, as violent thunderstorms sweep in from the west to shadow spring festivities, another death occurs–could it be murder? Harry ponders whether the two deaths are connected. And as she and her furry cohorts–the cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and corgi Tee Tucker–get mud on their boots and paws mapping local terrain and relationships and sniffing out telltale scents of villainy, someone is watching their every move.

When a shooting leads to the discovery of a half-million crisp, clean dollar bills that look to be very dirty, Harry’s blood is really up. But by the time she’s close to fingering a cold-blooded murderer, Mrs. Murphy already knows who it is–and who’s next in line. She also knows that Harry, curious as a cat, does not have nine lives. And the one she does have is hanging by the thinnest of threads. Mrs. Murphy… (more)