The Big Cat Nap [by] Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
New York; Bantam Books [2012]
978-0-345-53044-8; $26.00
“Harry” Haristeen and her menagerie throw a monkey wrench into the gears of a killer of grease monkeys in this, the 20th anniversary celebration of the Mrs. Murphy series.
We open with a nice leisurely ride in the country for Harry and her mentor, late 60-ish former Postmistress Miranda Hogendobber, when Miranda’s Outback ends up in a roadside ditch, followed by a repair shop. It seems there’s a spate of accidents lately, including the one that put the Very Reverend Herbert Jones’ truck in the same shop, and the one that put a young woman, hit by a deer, in the morgue.
After a church meeting, Harry and a group of friends go with the Rev. to get his half-ton Chevy truck back. The clerk calls to the shop for the truck, but there is no answer. They decide to go back, and they find the place strangely silent. There is no work going on because nobody’s there. But wait – there’s a pair of legs sticking out from under a car. Unfortunately, the fellow’s head turns out to be terribly bashed-in by a tire iron. The sheriff and Deputy Cooper, Harry’s good friend and neighbor begin their investigation.
Harry is very excited about her crops of hay and ginseng, which seem to be doing quite well. She is very enthusiastic about her sunflowers, and considers selling the future of her crops to the fellow who owns and manages the Fresh, Fresh, Fresh grocery store, but she feels a bit leery of him, although she can’t put her finger on why. But their old John Deere needs repairs. To buy a new one is way beyond question – even being serviced by the manufacturer is too much money. She invites an older farmer, friend of her parents, out to fix it and she picks his brain about the repairs.
Then Harry’s friend Franny Howard’s tire store is ransacked and all of the high-end tires stolen. Cooper also shows Harry, knowing she’s a car enthusiast, what was on the dead mechanic’s computer: pictures of gorgeous naked woman and beautifully-restored old cars, most of them “orphans,” that is, cars no longer in production, largely from manufacturers no longer in production.
Then another of the mechanics gets killed. He elects to race a big Camaro in his Subaru Impreza, and pulls a trick on the other driver. It gets to be dead because of it, just as he pulls into his girlfriend’s driveway.
Harry and a girlfriend go to the drag races at a nearby track that they have never visited. It’s where a lot of the mechanics race, as well as the insurer of many of the area’s cars, and the head of the garages that he refers his claimants to. The last two men talk cars with Harry, who covets the Subaru the young mechanic died driving, and they hint that she might be able to get a deal on it.
The Lutheran Church celebrates Flag Day with a festival of ceremony, music, eating, a game of capture-the-flag, and other activities. All the animals are there, and a collection of them, including the church cats and Harry’s two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and her Corgi, Tee Tucker, discover another dead mechanic in the cemetery, but not yet in a grave.
Harry, continuing to be curious about the murders and other things happening in her county, visits the salvage shop where the totaled vehicles from the insurance and repair shops go, and talks to the owner, the widow of the previous owner, and very knowledgable. She also steers her to a website, where she learns more. On her way home, she stops by the racetrack. There she is confronted by a Porsche and a Camaro. Obviously, the drivers don’t anticipate that Harry can drive as well as she can, and she gets away from them, calling Deputy Cooper as she hides at a Rite-Aide a little ways away.
The culprits are caught, and the reason for the crimes are discovered. A great deal of discrediting happens all the way around. The friends sit down for a nice BBQ and celebration that Harry didn’t get killed, her breast cancer is still in remission, and the crops sold well, although not to Fresh, Fresh, Fresh. A worthy outing for the 20th anniversary of this beloved cozy series. The animals, as usual, are fun, and the illustrations are wonderful. Recommended. ~ lss-r
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This is a library book.
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