2010: #52 – Pay Dirt (Rita Mae Brown)

Book #52 was Pay Dirt, the fourth book in Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy series.  The back of the book reads:

The residents of tiny Crozet, Virginia, thrive on gossip, especially in the post office, where Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen presides with her tiger cat, Mrs. Murphy. So when a belligerent Hell’s Angel crashes Crozet, demanding to see his girlfriend, the leather-clad interloper quickly becomes the chief topic of conversation. Then the biker is found murdered, and everyone is baffled. Well, almost everyone…Mrs. Murphy and her friends, Welsh corgi Tee Tucker and overweight feline Pewter, haven’t been slinking through alleys for nothing. But can they dig up the truth in time to save their humans from a ruthless killer?

This book was an improvement over the last Mrs. Murphy novel. The danger and the crimes got personal again, as the lives of more than one Crozet resident are affected. There was also less of the animals waxing rhapsodic about human nature. The true identity of the missing Malibu wasn’t that much of a secret to me, but I enjoyed watching everyone else try to figure out what was going on. We get a little more about Harry’s personal life here, as Blair and Fair (a name combo that drives me insane) are both actively vying for her affections, but I’d like to see that storyline move a little faster.  I’m curious to see Harry in a real relationship. This series was on life support, but this one has redeemed itself enough for me to continue reading.

Page count: 288 | Approximate word count: 72,000

2009: Sunny Chandler’s Return (Sandra Brown)
2008: Sharp Teeth (Toby Barlow)
2007: The Apprentice (Tess Gerritsen)
2006: The Winds of War (Herman Wouk)
2005: Four to Score (Janet Evanovich)

Used in these Challenges: 2010 100+ Reading Challenge; E-book Reading Challenge; Pages Read Challenge Season 2;