Review: Cat's Eyewitness

I am a fan of the Mrs. Murphy mysteries for two reasons. 1) I love animals, and the series features several recurring animal characters who are usually key to moving the plot along; and 2) they're set in Crozet, Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains and make me homesick as heck. There are several thousand miles and several gradients of environmental climate between here and there, and the setting for these books really brings it home. To the point where I was almost in tears while reading this one. Autumn leaves and snow. I remember those!

The series in general is silly, with a closed-town atmosphere that means that any new given character introduced is most likely going to bump off another new character. Exceptions appear in the series, of course, but you know that the big 8-10 characters will stick around.

Cat's Eyewitness, the latest in the series, sticks to the formula well and throws in a few red herrings here and there to keep you guessing, but it's never really mysterious who of the three possibilities is the culprit. The main focus, however, is on some surprising character developments for a character that has been around since the beginning of the series. It also follows the continuing story of Harry and her progress toward reconciling with her ex-husband, Fair.

For series fans, definitely, but I mostly recommend it for the descriptions of the weather in the Blue Ridge and as a light read for a plane trip. I'm from near there, and I really miss it sometimes.