Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown, Whisker of Evil

Whisker of Evil

Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown

Bantam, April 2004, $24.95

ISBN 05438011619

In the small central Virginia town of Crozet, animals speak to each other and understand what humans say even though those dumb Sapiens can't understand the animals. Mary "Harry" Haristeen loves her two cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and her dog Tee Tucker who she treats as if they were her children. They feel the same way about her and many a time they saved her life when she was in the middle of a homicide investigation.

One day while Harry is taking a walk in the woods she comes across horse breeder Barry Monteith, moments away from death, his throat ripped open. Mrs. Murphy has a feeling that danger is coming. A few days later, Harry is looking over the crime scene and accidentally walks in the nearby creek and finds a gold ring that belonged to a horse breeder who disappeared over a quarter of a century ago. The autopsy reports that Barry had rabies but a human agent cut out his throat. Not too long after these revelations, Barry's partner also dies from rabies and Harry is determined to find out what is really going on in her once peaceful town.

Change is in the air for Harry at work and in her personal life and she acknowledges to herself that she must make some radical descisions in her life. Readers will want to read WHISPER OF EVIL to find out what these changes are and how she once again finds out who the killer really is. Rita Mae Brown and her co-writer have written the purrfect who-done-it complete with red herrings and unexpected curves in the storyline.

Harriet Klausner