Rating: 
Summary: A good series going downhill -- and where's the editor?
Review: It's unfortunate that writers, particularly mystery writers, can't seem to bring a series to a conclusion before they run out of inspiration -- and plots. Again, Brown wraps up the plot neatly in the last few pages using information never divulged in the book -- is the mystery why anyone bothers to read a mystery that can't be deduced from the clues present in the book? And again, the animals get all the best lines. It would help if the humans got as much character development as the cats, dog, and horses (not to mention the owl and the blue jay!)And where's an editor when you need one -- to remind the author that her main character has always been a blonde? Bottom line -- not worth the time or the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: Not the best in the series, but worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Is Mrs. Murphy getting old?
Review: Sorry to say this story is not up to par, it reminds me that the writter is tired of this story line and only tells this tail for the money.
Readers do have expectations, one of mine is to be able to see the person writting through the story. I have all of the Mrs. Murphy books, sorry Rita Mae.
Rating: 
Summary: Mrs Murphy and friends solve another mystery.
Review: Things seem quiet in Crozet, until Miranda's hubcaps are stolen from her precious Falcon. They are quickly recovered at the local salvage yard, but the thief is not caught. The Dogwood Festival is in full swing, and Boom Boom has found an escort for Harry, the handsome and entertaining Diego. Diego works with Boom's new beau, Tom Steinmetz, at the Uraguayan embassy. At Aunt Tally's Luncheon, one of the brothers O'Bannon drops dead, apparently of a heart attack. This is the first of a string of deaths. Mrs. Murphy and Co. get suspicious and then worried, because as usual, Harry is in the middle of the mess. This is the best RMB mystery in a long time. The mystery has many twists and turns and the characters of the town of Crozet are as vivid and funny. The mystery wasn't difficult to solve, but getting there was an awful lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: This book can not decide whether to focus on the murder mystery at hand or the social lives of its characters. The animals have lots of dull philosophical conversations that are unecessary and take away from the story as a whole. "Catch as Cat Can" is easily the worst book in the Mrs. Murphy series.
Rating:
Summary: Catch As Cat Can
Review: Very entertaining. This is an excellent series by a very good writer (Sneaky Pie). I love the illustrations as well as the story. Most series get boring after the first few, but so far these remain first rate.
Rating:
Summary: just a little logic
Review: We don't got to a Sneaky Pie Brown mystery for a serious puzzle or realistic police work. Still, there needs to be just a little reality. A perfectly healthy young man falls dead at a party. A sheriff's deputy is there--yet NO ONE tries CPR. No one calls the paramedics, either. No one considers that it might be a crime scene, not does anyone try to convince the decedent's brother he ought to have an autopsy. (I believe in some jurisdictions an autopsy would be required for such a suspicious death. Even if not required by law, surely the law enforcement officers would encourage one.) Others' points about the quality of editing are also true. The illustrations are even more charming than usual, and almost worth the price of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Even Cozies deserve better.
Review: When a writer has the reputation and respect that Ms. Brown enjoys, one would expect that she would at least have some respect for the readers she would take time and money from. I fully understand what the cozy subgenre is about, and while I prefer less precious kinds of mysteries, I do enjoy Mott and M.C. Beaton because their books offer interesting puzzles, as well as humor and other things one can fix into the pages of the novel. HOWEVER, the complete and utter laziness and lack of insight into the fact that people who read mysterious have certain degrees of sophistication, and that a show on forensic science enjoys number one ranking on TV, why does Ms. Brown speak to her her audience as if she was talking to little old ladies who wear Dr. Scholls oxfords and still think it is 1949? Even the cats and other animals are annoying.
I guess Southern Cats are dumber than California cats (who don't give a prrr about human relationships, and sure don't give a meow about what their human welfare wagon does as long as the cat chow feeds flowing.) Anthropromorphising animals is obnoxious enough, but why make these poor helpless creatures as vapid and as simpering as the humans that populate Brown's redneck and plantation paradise. So a guy who runs a chop shop dies after drinking TEA? No autopsy. Why should we care who done it? The people who live in Brown's little phony balony hamlet sure don't. When there is coon hunting to be done....that is! I quit in disgust for time which will never return to me.
Rating:
Summary: Even Cozies deserve better.
Review: When a writer has the reputation and respect that Ms. Brown enjoys, one would expect that she would at least have some respect for the readers she would take time and money from. I fully understand what the cozy subgenre is about, and while I prefer less precious kinds of mysteries, I do enjoy Mott and M.C. Beaton because their books offer interesting puzzles, as well as humor and other things one can fix into the pages of the novel. HOWEVER, the complete and utter laziness and lack of insight into the fact that people who read mysterious have certain degrees of sophistication, and that a show on forensic science enjoys number one ranking on TV, why does Ms. Brown speak to her her audience as if she was talking to little old ladies who wear Dr. Scholls oxfords and still think it is 1949? Even the cats and other animals are annoying.
I guess Southern Cats are dumber than California cats (who don't give a prrr about human relationships, and sure don't give a meow about what their human welfare wagon does as long as the cat chow feeds flowing.) Anthropromorphising animals is obnoxious enough, but why make these poor helpless creatures as vapid and as simpering as the humans that populate Brown's redneck and plantation paradise. So a guy who runs a chop shop dies after drinking TEA? No autopsy. Why should we care who done it? The people who live in Brown's little phony balony hamlet sure don't. When there is coon hunting to be done....that is! I quit in disgust for time which will never return to me.
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