It's autumn in cozy, idyllic

Crozet, Virginia—a time for

golden days, crisp nights…and

murder. Mrs. Carla Paulson is

one of the diamond-encrusted

“come-here” set who has descended on Crozet with

plenty of wealth and no feeling

for country ways. She's

determined to make her new

house the envy of all her well-

heeled friends—and enemies — and she's hired architect Tazio

Chappers to build it. From the

start, the project—and Mrs.

Paulson—are a major headache

for all involved. But no one could

foresee that it would end with Mrs. Paulson stabbed to death at

a gala fund-raiser with Harry's

friend Tazio standing over her,

holding the knife. Now Harry

must solve what seems to

everyone else an open-and-shut case. Her four-legged partners

—sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy

and Pewter and corgi Tee

Tucker—see it Harry's way. But

will they have to choose

between catching the purrfect killer and saving Harry?

Bestselling authors Rita Mae

Brown and her feline partner,

Sneaky Pie Brown, are back for

the holidays in a mystery

featuring Mary Minor “Harry”

Haristeen, the sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and

corgi Tee Tucker. Can they save

the season from a killjoy who’s

decided to gift the festive little

town…with murder?

As Harry well knows, there’s hardly a place on earth cozier

than Crozet, Virginia, at

Christmastime. The snowflakes

drifting lazily down, the soft

glow of the winter light, the

sound of old carols in the streets…even cats Mrs. Murphy

and Pewter get into the spirit

batting ornaments and climbing

the holiday tree. In fact, it’s this

year’s tree that Harry and her

husband, Fair, have gone to fetch when they find the one

they’ve chosen grimly decorated

with a dead body.

The tree farm is run by The

Brothers of Love, a

semimonastic organization that tends to AIDS patients. The

brothers live in a monastery

atop the scenic Blue Ridge

Mountains. Harry is surprised to

find an old high-school friend

associated with The Brothers of Love. Christopher Hewitt wasn’t

a bad man, but good works

weren’t exactly one of his

priorities. But then, if even

Scrooge could turn over a new

leaf, certainly Chris could. And after the scandal that all but

destroyed his life, there were

probably few in Crozet who

needed the gift of a second

chance more.

Harry knows she shouldn’t take it personally, but it was her tree

that someone left the corpse

under. Now, as the season

grows merrier, a murderer is

growing bolder. One by one,

prominent men of Crozet are being crossed off Christmas

shopping lists and added to the

morgue. And if Harry and her

four-legged helpers aren’t very

good—and very careful—this

Christmas may be her last.

Beloved authors Rita Mae Brown

and her feline co-conspirator,

Sneaky Pie Brown, sow the

seeds of an all-new mystery

featuring Mary Minor "Harry"

Haristeen, sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and that

incorrigible corgi Tee Tucker.

This time around, the onset of

spring ushers in more than hay

fever as the animal friends must

come to the aid of an ailing Harry to sniff out the season's

first blossom of murder. Ah,

spring! The redbuds open, the

robins return, and the days

lengthen. People's spirits lift--as

do those of their animal companions. As a wave of tilling

and planting sweeps over

Crozet, Virginia, Harry is

especially excited: This year is

her first harvesting grapes to

sell. But then a health crisis sends her reeling into the

forbidding world of hospitals

and doctors, treatments and

procedures. Surviving this

journey will be tough, but Mrs.

Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker will do their best to steer Harry in

the right direction--as will her

ever-helpful husband, Fair.

Others will have worse luck: An

especially promising nurse's

lifeless body is discovered without a mark on her. Then

another hospital employee, who

had seemed in perfect health, is

also found dead. It's clear

there's a mystery afoot--and

that's one thing Harry and her menagerie can't keep their

noses out of.

To celebrate the twentieth

anniversary of the beloved Mrs.

Murphy mystery series, Rita Mae

Brown and her intrepid feline

co-author Sneaky Pie Brown

return with a charming claw- biting tale starring Mary Minor

“Harry” Haristeen. Of course

prowling faithfully at Harry’s

side are the sleuthing cats Mrs.

Murphy, ever wise, and Pewter,

reliably cranky and always primed with a razor-sharp quip.

Fiercely loyal and on the alert,

corgi Tee Tucker is also never far

behind. This time, Harry and her

menagerie throw a wrench into

the gears of a killer of grease monkeys.

It’s mid-May, and Crozet,

Virginia, is heating up fast, or so

it seems to Harry. The town’s

beloved ex–post mistress is

never idle, dividing her time between raising this year’s

bounty of crops; taking care of

her veterinarian husband, Fair;

indulging her passion for classic

cars; and adding further to her

reputation as a nosy neighbor. It starts when Harry’s dear

friend Miranda Hogendobber

takes her on a leisurely drive

that ends in a narrow drainage

ditch. The chaos continues when

the Very Reverend Herbert Jones’s Chevy pick-up also

abruptly goes kaput. But these

vehicular mishaps are nothing

compared to the much more

distressing state of a mechanic

discovered by Harry in a local repair shop: His head’s been

bashed in.

Despite numerous warnings

from her much-loved coterie of

friends, human and otherwise,

Harry rather quickly surmises that the time has come to pop

the hood and conduct her own

investigation. Her animal

companions see disaster fast

approaching but can do little

except try their best to protect their foolishly intrepid human.

Harry’s race to the truth leads

straight to powerful forces

determined to avoid scrutiny at

any cost—even if it means

running Harry Haristeen off the road for good.

Finally, a candidate representing all Americans—both predator and prey!

Tired of politics as usual? Despair not: This election year, Rita Mae Brown has thrown her cat into the ring. Her intrepid feline co-author, Sneaky Pie Brown, is taking time off from her busy schedule writing bestselling mysteries to run for President of the United States.

Hail to the Chief: Sneaky Pie heads to the Oval Office with an animal-friendly agenda to unify all Americans—regardless of whether they walk on two or four feet or even if they fly.

With help from her friends—the irascible gray cat Pewter, the wise Corgi Tee Tucker, and Tally, the exuberant Jack Russell—Sneaky crisscrosses her home state of Virginia hoping to go where no cat since Socks Clinton has gone: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the tradition of her heroine, Sojourner Truth, she takes her case to the masses. Journeying from the lair of the red-shouldered hawk to the nest of the tufted titmouse, from a pasture full of curmudgeonly cows to the stately halls of Monticello, the tenacious tiger cat even secures the chattering support of Thomas Jefferson’s mice.

Mice backing a cat for president? Yes, we can!

Now, if Sneaky can get the animal community to band together for the common good, why not the humans? After all, who better to get the economy purring again than an honest tabby with authentic political stripes? Human candidates have had their chance in Washington, with dubious results of late: nowhere does it say in the Constitution that the president cannot be a cat.

Isn’t it time for real change? Vote Sneaky!

Autumn has descended and crops are being harvested all over Crozet, Virginia, ideal conditions for a scenic drive for Harry and husband Fair. Bucolic views are all well and good, but Harry’s nose for trouble leads her straight to a cornfield’s macabre scarecrow—an all too real murder victim that frightens all but the noisy crows.

This accountant’s gruesome death is only the first of many disturbing events in this normally pastoral corner of the world. While Harry tends her beloved grapes and sunflowers, a killer edges closer—as does Harry’s protective menagerie of animals.

Halloween’s approach brings with it bona fide terror and a beloved local tradition that threatens to become fatal. Rooting out the guilty in the treacherous center of a lucrative conspiracy requires Harry’s farmer’s wisdom—along with the quick wits and extraordinary senses of Sneaky Pie, Pewter, and Tucker. A vicious murderer may know the lay of the land far better than Harry does, but that’s about to change. It’s up to her vigilant four-footed companions to make sure that the unearthing of this plot is not Harry’s last act.

Winter has come to Crozet, Virginia, bringing with it a fresh blanket of snow. Harry and her husband, Fair, are hip deep in their usual end-of-the-year activities: distributing food to needy residents, and shopping for outfits for the Silver Linings youth organization’s annual fundraising gala. But buried beneath the white stuff are dark secrets from Crozet’s past—and Harry and her posse of pet detectives are determined to sniff them out.

Two Silver Linings mentors have been found dead in suspicious circumstances. If that weren’t enough to chill the bones of the locals, a pair of severed human fingers has turned up in a pencil jar in the bookkeeper’s office at St. Cyril’s church. What does this grisly display have to do with the mysterious disappearance of Harry’s voluptuous high school Latin teacher, a quarter of a century ago? Maybe nothing. But when the animals make another gruesome discovery in the woods behind Harry’s farm, it becomes clear that terrible crimes have been committed in Crozet—and somebody’s gone to great lengths to cover them up. It’s time to stop shoveling snow and start digging for clues.

The truth will be revealed. A cold case will be solved. And a twenty-five-year-old love triangle is about to get untangled. The weather outside may be frightful, but Harry and her four-legged friends refuse to be spooked off the case.

Spring has sprung in Crozet, Virginia—a time for old friends to gather and bid farewell to the doldrums of winter. Harry and her husband, Fair, are enjoying a cozy dinner with some of the town’s leading citizens, including beloved University of Virginia history professor Greg “Ginger” McConnell and several members of UVA’s celebrated 1959 football team. But beneath the cloak of conviviality lurks a sinister specter from the distant past that threatens to put all their lives in jeopardy.

When Professor McConnell is found murdered on the golf course the next day—gunned down in broad daylight by an unseen killer—no one can fathom a motive, let alone find a suspect. Just as Harry and her furry cohorts begin nosing into the case, however, a homeless UVA alum confesses to the crime. Trouble is, no one believes that the besotted former All-American could have done the foul deed—especially after Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker make another gruesome discovery.

As the questions surrounding Ginger’s death pile up, Harry’s search for answers takes her down the fascinating byways of Virginia’s Revolutionary past. The professor was something of a sleuth himself, it seems, and the centuries-old mystery he was unraveling may well have put a target on his back. As Harry edges closer to identifying an elusive killer, her animal companions sense danger—and rally to find a way to keep Harry from disappearing into history.

At any moment a perfect summer day in Crozet, Virginia—nestled within the Blue Ridge Mountains—might turn stormy and tempestuous, as Harry knows too well when a squall suddenly sweeps in. In a blink, Harry’s pickup nearly collides with a careening red car that then swerves into a ditch. Harry recognizes the dead driver slumped over the vehicle’s steering wheel: Barbara Leader was nurse and confidante to former Virginia governor Sam Holloway.

Though Barbara’s death is ruled a heart attack, dissenting opinions abound. After all, she was the picture of health, which gives Harry and her four-legged companions pause. A baffling break-in at a local business leads Harry to further suspect that a person with malevolent intent lurks just out of sight: Something evil is afoot.

As it happens, Barbara died in the shadow of the local cemetery’s statue of the Avenging Angel. Just below that imposing funereal monument lie the remains of one Francisco Selisse, brutally murdered in 1784. Harry’s present-day sleuthing draws her back to Virginia’s slave-holding past and the hunt for Selisse’s killer. Now it’s up to Harry and her furry detectives—Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tee Tucker—to expose the bitter truth, even if it means staring into the unforgiving eyes of history and cornering a callous killer poised to pounce.

Autumn is in the air in the Blue Ridge Mountain community of Crozet, Virginia--and all the traditions of the changing seasons are under way. Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen cleans her cupboards, her husband, Fair, prepares the horses for the shorter days ahead, and the clamorous barking of beagles signals the annual rabbit chase through the central Virginia hills. But the last thing the local beaglers and their hounds expect to flush out is a dead body.

Disturbingly, it's the second corpse to turn up, after that of a missing truck driver too disfigured to identify. The deaths seem unrelated--until Harry picks up a trail of clues dating back to the state's post-Revolutionary past.

The echoes of the Shot Heard Round the World pale in comparison to the dangerous shootout Harry narrowly escapes unscathed. Next time, it may be the killer who gets lucky. But not if Harry's furry friends Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker can help it. Lending their sharp-nosed talents to the hunt, they'll help their mistress keep more lives from being lost--and right an injustice buried since the early days of America's independence.

Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown return with a new tale in their bestselling Mrs. Murphy series, as mysteries past and present converge in Albemarle County, Virginia.

Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen and her friends and animal companions pursue the threads of a mystery dating back to Virginia's post-Revolutionary past, when their 18th-century predecessors struggled with the challenges of the fledgling country. In the present day, Harry's new friendship with Marvella Lawson, doyenne of the Richmond art world, leads her to rediscover her own creative passions--and reveals evidence of an all too contemporary crime.

**Mary Minor "Harry" Harristeen is on the hunt for a killer with a deadly green thumb when a day in the garden turns fatal in this exciting new mystery from Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown.**

Spring arrives in northern Virginia, and as the ground thaws and the peonies begin to bloom a bright magenta, the women of St. Luke's Lutheran Church prepare for a Homecoming celebration like no other. In honor of the day, Harry, Susan Tucker, and their friends decide to remodel the gardens of the church based on the plants that would have grown in the time St. Luke's was built, and plan to visit the historically accurate gardens of Montpelier to find inspiration in Dolley Madison's climbing roses.

But the gardens have been visited by catastrophe --a patch near the back is torn up in the night, completely destroyed. Is this the work of a random vandal? Or was someone looking for something growing in that garden?

When Jeannie Cordle...