Sun 17 May 2009
Archived Review: RITA MAE BROWN & SNEAKY PIE BROWN – Catch As Cat Can.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
RITA MAE BROWN & SNEAKY PIE BROWN – Catch As Cat Can.
Bantam; paperback reprint, Feb 2003. Hardcover edition: March 2002.
Yes, Virginia, there really is a Crozet. In Virginia, that is, a small town of about 2000 inhabitants (not including cats), snugly nestled into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Montains. And the home of Mary Minor Haristeen, known to her friends as Harry, the postmistress of Crozet, and the Mom to Mrs. Murphy and Pewter (both cats) and Tee Tucker (a corgi).
That the Mrs. Murphy mysteries are popular almost goes without saying, as this is the 10th in the series, but on the other hand, I am also positive that there are many many mystery readers who would never never read a mystery that has talking animals in them.
To each other, that is, not to humans, who are ever a source of humor and resignation to them. Not to mention food.
From page 3: “‘I’m standing vigil at the food bowl.’ Pewter zipped to the kitchen.” And here’s a typical cat way of expressing herself, from page 35: “Mrs. Murphy strode into the room, sat down on the coffee table, and yelled, ‘Everybody is horrible! Only I am perfect!'” Animals — and I never knew this before — are very blunt observers of the humans around them. Read page 144 and be convinced.
And Harry’s three companions — Harry once was married, but her ex is still friendly, and wants to be friendlier again, but she is not sure — do their best to assist in solving the mysteries involved in their books, but being unable to communicate with Harry in any useful manner, they are forced, alas, to allow her to muddle along without them.
In Catch As Cat Can, it takes 80 pages for the first death to occur — before that the only crime that occurs is a case of the stolen hupcaps — and the atmosphere is so low key that even then no one’s aware that murder has actually happened.
Rita Mae Brown is a well-known writer of Southern fiction, and she has the details of life in small town Crozet delineated perfectly, social structure and all, down to the finest details, but as a mystery writer, she’s a long way from being this generation’s Agatha Christie.
The investigation carried out by the local sheriff’s office is certainly up to any large city’s standard, but it’s still largely underwhelming and uninspired. There are heaps and heaps of speculation, most of it wrong, and no one asks the right question at the right time. And although there’s a great big huge Wrecker’s Ball of a finale, the solution is both (a) strictly from left field, and (b) simply too easy.
Harry, the two cats, the corgi, and all of her friends (and ex-husband) are certainly great people to sit down and visit with vicariously, though, and if you find yourself hooked, you’ll probably want to come back again and again.
[UPDATE] 05-17-09. I wouldn’t mind reading another in the series, but while I’ve had the chance, several times over, so far I haven’t. Others have taken up the slack, though. Since I wrote this review, only six years ago, another seven Mrs. Murphy books have been published.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Reading this I couldn’t help but recall how critics used to complain about the cats in Richard and Frances Lockridge’s Mr. and Mrs. North series. Imagine what they would have said if the North’s cats could talk?
May 19th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The thought of that made me smile, David, a broad one!
May 19th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I love cats in real life – our family’s beloved Harry was with us for 19 years.
But I confess I’ve never been able to warm up to anthropomorphized cats or dogs in novels. You know, the kinds that think in English, and who solve mysteries.
I put sometimes cats in my own mystery stories. But they are always realistic cats. They’re nosy, curious, like to follow people around, and sleep a lot…They don’t think or narrate.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
For my money the best cats in mystery fiction are the Lockridges Martini and of course T.C. Randall the hero of the Gordons Undercover Cat (filmed twice as That Darn Cat) and it’s sequel. Both are affectionate but realistic portrayls of felines. I’m sure there is some obvious feline I’m missing, but those are the ones that come to mind.
There’s a delightful thriller by Mark Channing called Nine Lives in which his hero Colin Gray finds a small black kitten that tags along on his mission an invaluable ally. The book manages the neat trick of presenting the animal realistically while still suggesting the kitten may be an agent of the goddess Bast. I defy you to get to the ending without at least a sniffle or two.
I’ve had one live to 23 and several to 19 and cheerfully admit being devoted to them — though how devoted they were in return usually involves the can opener and whether you sit still long enough to act as a bed.
Dogs fare a little better in the genre, from Sherlock Holmes Toby and Sexton Blakes hound of the same name to the Scotties in Van Dine’s The Kennel Murder Case, and Duncan MacLain’s seeing eye dogs. Nero Wolfe even acquired a dog, though I think he is only in the one story. Among my favorite dogs in books are Hercules, the giant bloodhound in Craig Rice’s Trial by Fury, and the delightfully homicidal and ultimately heroic hound in Edmund Crispin’s Love Lies Bleeding. Then too there is Chesterton’s wonderful Father Brown story, “The Oracle of the Dog.” Dornford Yates novels are very doggy, though the few that show up in Sapper’s Bulldog Drummond tales are usually of the monstrous variety.
Then, of course, there’s that Baskerville beast.
Still, over the last twenty years cats have outpaced them and feature as major players or even sleuths in all sorts of cozies — some realistic, many anthropomorhized. I didn’t mind the latter in Paul Gallico, but can’t quite go Rita Mae Brown.