Claws and Effect: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery - Softcover

Brown, Rita Mae

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553580906 ISBN 13: 9780553580907

Publisher: Bantam, 2002

Synopsis

CLAWS AND EFFECT

Winter puts tiny Crozet, Virginia, in a deep freeze and everyone seems to be suffering from the winter blahs, including postmistress Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen. So all are ripe for the juicy gossip coming out of Crozet Hospital–until the main source of that gossip turns up dead. It’s not like Harry to resist a mystery, and she soon finds the hospital a hotbed of ego, jealousy, and illicit love.

But it’s tiger cat Mrs. Murphy, roaming the netherworld of Crozet Hospital, who sniffs out a secret that dates back to the Underground Railroad. Then Harry is attacked and a doctor is executed in cold blood.

Soon only a quick-witted cat and her animal pals feline Pewter and corgi Tee Tucker stand between Harry and a coldly calculating killer with a prescription for murder.

About this title

Review:

In a small town, everyone knows each other's secrets--or do they? When a Crozet Hospital staff member is found murdered in the boiler room, everyone in the bucolic Virginia burg is puzzled and none more so than postmistress "Harry" Haristeen. With the help of her two curious kitties, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and her corgi, Tucker (who find human perception maddeningly slow), Harry soon finds herself entangled in the strange web of misdoings at the hospital.

The ninth installment in Rita Mae Brown's "Mrs. Murphy" series, Claws and Effect is more entertaining than suspenseful, with a liberal dose of witty conversations among the animals punctuated by Itoko Maeno's adorable illustrations of the four-legged sleuths. There is just enough misdirection to keep mystery buffs guessing and enough social gossip among the town's human citizens to make readers eagerly anticipate their next visit to Crozet. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

From the Back Cover:

“As feline collaborators go, you couldn’t ask for better than Sneaky Pie Brown.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Mrs. Murphy is [a] cat who detects her way into our hearts.”
–San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0553580906
• ISBN 13: 9780553580907
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 336