It's an Impurrfect Murder...
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Author: Rita Mae Brown
Title: The Purrfect Murder Genre: mystery Oh, Lordy, another murder. Crozet is shocked! Shocked! I tell you - and to think that the town's talented (not to mention gorgeous) architect, Tazio Chappers, was found standing over the body with a bloody knife in her hand. Tsk, tsk - it's almost as open-and-shut as the assassination of the town's only doctor who performs abortions, just a few days ago. The dead woman was pure-D unpleasant, of course; one of those nouveau richeYankees who've descended upon central Virginia in recent years, not unlike like a plague of Japanese Beetles. The list of people who might've had reason to cut her throat is as long as those white gloves a Southern Belle wears to cotillion, but no one saw or heard a thing - so it's off to the lockup for poor Ms. Chappers. But "Harry" Hairsteen's not about to abandon her friend, open-and-shut case or not (and neither are her animals, who are buds with Tazio's yellow Lab). The grapevine is humming: something nasty is afoot in Crozet; and Harry intends to get to the bottom of it, even if it kills her. Of course, that last is only a figure of speech... isn't it? When Rita Mae Brown first began publishing the "Mrs. Murphy" mystery series (apparently sharing writing duties with her cat, Sneaky Pie), the central Virginia town of Crozet seemed reminiscent of a Dixie version of Garrison Keillor's Lake Woebegone. It had its competing Lutheran and Catholic churches, and Ralph of the Pretty Good Grocery couldn't have been much different from Market Schifflet. Instead of the Sidetrack Tap, Brown created the Crozet Post Office, where heroine Mary Minor Hairsteen originally passed postcards and gossip over an old wooden counter. "Harry" herself, though not Norwegian and divorced instead of a bachelor, would certainly have felt at home in a barn out on the edge of the prairie. Crozet was a comfortable place in those days, even if the murder rate was exceeded only by that of Crabapple Cove, Maine. A perfect (purrfect?) setting for cozy mysteries, Crozet still abounds with lively characters Harry has known since childhood - newcomers to the town almost invariably end up in one or the other of the cannon-fodder roles (victim or killer...). The addition of a cadre of talking animals - dogs, cats, mice, rats - to "assist" in the solution of the mysteries is a cozy little touch, as well. However, Rita Mae (or is it Sneaky Pie?) seems less interested in "coziness" in The Purrfect Murder than in hectoring her readers about various subjects. Given that an abortion provider is the first murder victim, it gives her characters lots of opportunity to express various views on the subject of abortion. But that's only the start... Brown's characters lecture the reader on a wide array of topics, including Brown's politics (how a real southerner votes is by asking, "First, is it good for Dixie?"). We also learn that the effect of a July, 2007, change in state traffic laws is that state troopers more likely to ticket Virginians for speeding than "furriners" - I kid you not... We misbegotten Yankees¹ are treated to a heapin' helpin' of smugness about how cultured and refined Virginians are; how breeding trumps money every time (especially if it's northern money), although breeding and money also trump breeding and genteel poverty. Land sakes, Rita Mae: you're as bad as those Manhattanites who think that "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" should be printed beneath every sign that says "Now Leaving New York." And what's worse, you put the same sentiments in the mouths of those animals... As mysteries go, cozy or not, The Purrfect Murder doesn't come particularly close to "purrfection." So much page space is spent on being smug about Virginia that there really aren't any clues and no detective work, except a monumentally stupid "creep" of one suspect's house. The identity of the real villain isn't really much of a mystery, either, since - per the rules of mystery writing - Brown must introduce the killer early on, and every time s/he appears it's as if s/he's been crammed into the scene with a shoehorn. This one ain't much fun, if you ask me. Given that the MM series began to drag three or four books ago, it's time for me to give up on it. I can only hope that Rita Mae's upcoming book Sand Castles (another in the saga of the Hunsenmeier sisters) doesn't fall into the same rut.. ¹ Just for the record, I had ancestors fighting on both sides of the Civil War Between the States... all content copyright © 2001-present by scmrak
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