Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown

Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Curiosity just might be the death of Mrs. Murphy--and her human companion, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen.  Small towns are like families:  Everyone lives very close together. . .and everyone keeps secrets.  Crozet, Virginia, is a typical small town-until its secrets explode into murder.  Crozet's thirty-something post-mistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, has a tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and a Welsh Corgi (Tucker), a pending divorce, and a bad habit of reading postcards not addressed to her.  When Crozet's citizens start turning up murdered, Harry remembers that each received a card with a tombstone on the front and the message "Wish you were here" on the back.  Intent on protecting their human friend, Mrs. Murphy and Tucker begin to scent out clues.  Meanwhile, Harry is conducting her own investigation, unaware her pets are one step ahead of her.  If only Mrs. Murphy could alert her somehow, Harry could uncover the culprit before the murder occurs--and before Harry finds herself on the killer's mailing list.

I chose this book because it takes place in Crozet, VA not far from Charlottesville. I love that area and the author, Rita Mae Brown actually lives in the area, so I was intrigued by that. Secondly, my book club decided to read a "cat mystery" for July AND I love my cat. The mystery of the murderer lasted to the very end of the book and it wasn't obvious until...say...3/4 of the way through. I liked that. The murders were kind of gruesome, however they weren't described in detail and you found out about them after the fact, so that wasn't so bad. I loved Harry, the main character, and her animals - Mrs. Murphy, her cat and Tucker, her Corgi. Their antics and discovery details were priceless. Their conversations and the way they tried to tell Harry their ideas were great. Cozy mysteries are not my favorite genre, but they aren't bad. I probably won't run out and buy the next book in the series, but as I said, I did enjoy it. It's a great book for cat/animal lovers and mystery-lovers.




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