Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries) by Rita Mae Brown
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Book Reviews of Santa Clawed (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries)
Book 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.
Book Review: Too predictable
Summary: 3 Stars
I thought this one was way too predictable. I could see the ending coming a mile away. I'm glad the author did a better job of keeping her opinions to herself in this book. I hope the next book is a little more "mysterious"! I still like the characters and the rural setting but the ending was just too obvious.Book Review: so disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
Looks like Rita just cranked this one out for some extra spending money. None of the finely drawn characterizations of her earlier Sneaky Pie series.Book Review: Rita Mae, you can do so much better
Summary: 2 Stars
I used to enjoy this series. The characters used to have more depth and more differences; now nearly every one of the standard cast of characters is full of sweetness and light. That's not only not real, it's boring. The books used to be "cozy" but with spirit; now they're blah. The plots have become too predictable, with the heroine's cats and dog miraculously saving her time and again. I know from the earlier books in this series, and from Brown's other mystery series, also set in Virginia among horses, that she can do much better work. I fear she is running out of either inventiveness or interest, which is sad - I have enjoyed her books and many of her characters. I bought this Mrs. Murphy book, but I won't buy the next one - I'll just take it out of the library and read it.Book Review: wasn't up to snuff
Summary: 2 Stars
Compared to her other work, this book just wasn't up to par. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the other books of the series. It was very short, she had already done a book about the monastery.