A Purr-fect Mystery

Concerns Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen. Last book, she remarried her ex-husband, Fair Haristeen, a veterinarian. Her pets, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, both cats, and Tee Tucker, a Welsh Corgi, are overjoyed to have Fair back, and usually help Harry with uncovering mysteries. They don't have the chance to do that when a local doctor, Will Wylde, is shot and killed. Will is an OB/GYN and also served as an abortionist when local women got in trouble. But after very short order, a man named Jonathan Bechtal confesses to the murder. Jonathan Bechtal runs an anti-abortion organization named, "Love for Life", and claims to have done God's work, being "The Hammer in the Hand of God".

Everyone is sorry for Will's wife, Bernita, no matter their views or stance on abortion, and offers her their support. But shortly afterwards, there is another murder, that of a local woman named Carla Paulson, in the middle of a gala white-tie dinner at Poplar Forest, a home once owned by Thomas Jefferson. She is murdered on the front lawn while everyone is sitting down to dinner and listening to speeches, and a woman named Tazio Chappars, a young architect who was building a new house for Mrs. Paulson, is found standing over the dead body holding the knife.

Harry doesn't believe Tazio, who she knows well, could ever do such a thing, and is determined to find out who really killed Carla Paulson. But the suspect list is far from small. Carla was rich but vulgar, and her determination to have everything her own way, not to mention complain and argue if she felt she was being taken, have not made her a popular woman. In addition to Tazio being frustrated with her, she also had an antagonistic relationship with Michael MacElvoy, the building inspector working on her new house. He had given her a list of expensive changes that would have to be made to bring her house up to code, and she felt he was being ridiculous. She offered him money, and he refused to take it, which really set her off. But was it bad enough that he would kill her for it?

Harry is told by "Big" Mim Sanburne that her daughter, known as "Little" Mim Sanburne is being blackmailed for an incident involving an abortion she had when she was in college. It was performed by Will Wylde, and she doesn't think anyone knew about it but herself and the now-dead doctor. As "Little" Mim is now in politics, and a Republican, if this is leaked, it could ruin her political career, as she has been for the abolition of abortion, although generally avoided the position in public speaking. It would make her look foolish and hypocritical. But she manages to save herself by changing her position on abortion and claiming her own experience with it as the reason for her changing her mind.

The blackmail letter she recieved asked for the money to be sent to the same post office box as "Love for Life", and was sent *after* Jonathan Bechtal was imprisoned. But how could that be? Obviously, he has an accomplice on the outside who sent the letters. But who is it, and do they have anything to do with Carla Paulson's death? Harry goes around to the other women who had to deal with Michael MacElvoy, and discovers that one of them was also being blackmailed, and that the money was to be sent to the Love for Life address, blackmailed because she had an affair, and couldn't tell her husband, who had made her sign a prenuptual agreement stipulating divorce with nothing to her should she ever be unfaithful.

And from a contractor that worked with Mike MacElvoy, that he always had a problem with women he worked for if there was no husband around. This makes Harry suspicious that Mike MacElvoy may not be guilty of murder, but he is certainly guilty of something. But when Harry goes in search of evidence in Mike's shed, it will be up to the animals to protect her and very possibly save her life.

I must dearly confess, I love me some Rita Mae Brown. She has perfectly captured both Southern society and the lives of animals, right to the way they will "talk" back to the owners. Her animal characters are just as well-developed as her human characters, and, just as humans try to understand their pets, the pets also try to understand their humans, and sometimes the animals scoff at the foibles of "their" humans. She also writes some of the most well-constructed mysteries I have ever read.

Harry is the kind of friend we all would want, willing to go out on a limb when her friends are in danger, smart, tough and not at all concerned for her good looks. The illustrations in the book are all of, as co-writer Sneaky Pie Brown would say, the most important characters in the books: Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tee Tucker. You do get to see Harry's body in one of them, but not her head or her face (which is good, because nothing in a picture could live up to the image of Harry I have in my head. Not even the single movie, starring Rikki Lake, lives up to the Harry in my head. Not to mention they made Tee Tucker male in the movie, whereas she is female in the books. Blythe Danner's voice as Mrs. Murphy's has, however.)

In short, if you are an animal lover who loves animal mysteries, or even if you aren't and just love mysteries, give Rita Mae Brown and Mrs. Murphy a try. I think you'll be glad you did.