Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) by Rita Mae Brown
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Book Summary Author: Rita Mae Brown Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2008-11-04 ISBN: 0553807064 Number of pages: 256 Publisher: Bantam |
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Book Reviews of the Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries)
Customer Review: The gang has an off day
Summary: 3 Stars
Rita Mae Brown's mystery series starring pets and their owner has been a guilty pleasure. After more than a dozen entries in the series, I am addicted. I read the good ones--which satirize at the same time they fondly celebrate the collision of traditional Virginia horse country culture with the modern world--and the not so good episodes that just don't deliver the same amount of character, wit and cultural coloring. When she's very, very good, RMB stays true to her airtight version of Crozet, Virginia. In a couple, she's strayed beyond her world either geographically or thematically. This time out, she mostly stays true to that world, but the air is out of it, like a flat tire.
I was worried that "Santa Clawed" arrived too quickly--less than a year--on the heels of the previous mystery and the haste shows. One of the trademarks of the Mrs. Murphy series is the author's introductory cast of characters list. This is half conceived, with only some of the regular residents of Crozet mentioned and none of the newcomers who traditionally fill the list of the dead, the suspects and the occasional new pal. Another trademark is that at some point in the story, you can count on a brawl of some sort breaking out at a social event. Nope. Big Mim and husband Jim, Little Mim and her husband, Aunt Tally, Tazio and Tracy hardly or not in evidence at all. The Christmas season should have given the author an opportunity to explore her community's traditions in comic yet respectful detail. Instead, even with the murders, it feels kind of eventless. Our human sleuth is injured and instead of solving the mystery with the lead of the pets who are always ahead of her, cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and dog Tucker, she's mostly recuperating and being protected. The mystery is more inane than simple.
And yet, it is better than no Crozet, no Harry and Fair, no animals. A friend who has had a lot of good days is having a bad one. That's all.