Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing entry in series
Review: The Mrs. Murphy mystery series is like a favorite pair of old slippers. I'll read one no matter what, but I think this particular volume shows new life. Although I don't have the objectivity of someone who has never read any of the books by the team of Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown, I think a newcomer could easily join the club with WHISKER OF EVIL. It defines old characters and references to past events and purveys the strengths of the series. Comparing this book to others in the series and to its genre, it gets 5 stars.The chief strength I find is that Brown succeeds in satirizing the "cozy" mystery genre at the same time she pays homage to it. She has created some genial though not uncomplicated regular characters and a world that she does not puncture even when shaking things up, which she does considerably this time around. She is realistic (well, as realistic as you get when animals have their own lines of dialogue). What began in her first books as a speck on a rural map of Virginia, the town of Crozet in Albemarle County, has become urbanized rural. Government regulations plague postmistress/heroine Mary ("Harry") Hairsteen. You can see the whole South grappling with its past, present and future through this series. In deceptively simple prose, she conveys a strong sense of how time and the world catch up with the individual. The mystery itself is predictable. But who really reads or even writes "cozies" as brainteasers? Brown is having a lot of fun. She exercises a lot of knowledge about horse culture and airs her views on growth, government, taxes, ageing, and humanity, not to mention tourists who visit the real town of Crozet and don't find it as cute as they think a setting in a "cozy" should be.
Rating:
Summary: Catch as Cat Can
Review: Whisker of Evil tells the "tail" of crime sniffing Mrs. Murphy and Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, a postmistress in the small country town of Crozet. Harry loves to farm her land, run the local postoffice,and when the oppurtunity comes, solve the perfect murder mystery. As fate has it, yet another murder is dropped into her lap. Barry Monteith, a succesful young horse trainer is found dead with a ripped jugular. Now Harry is hot on
the trail with Mrs. Murphy and her other two pets, gray cat Pewter, and corgi Tee Tucker. Together, this foursome begin to unravel the mystery. But the more that Harry knows, the more danger she is in. With another young trainer found dead and a bad case of rabies in Crozet, Mrs.Murhpy and co. have their hands full with keeping their beloved human, Harry, out of trouble and perhaps out of death. This novel by Rita Mae Brown is an excellent read for the murder mystery lovers out there. Written in third person, it provides a wonderful perception of all that goes on. A captivitaing read, Whiskers of Evil will have the tail scared off of you.
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