Whisker of Evil (Hardcover)

But distractions abound. First, the novel is not well written. Brown wants her characters to speak naturally, but she also wants to provide her readers with necessary information. Consequently, she has natural dialogue, but then adds information in the form of "she mentioned," etc., interrupting the flow of that natural dialogue. Brown also tends to be somewhat repetitive with information (for instance, about Cazenovia and Elocution). I don't recall if the narrator was omniscient in her other books; in this book, the omniscience takes the form of statements like, "Tazio liked Paul"-often information unrelated to the dialogue and so general and bland as to not add to the story.

"Whisker of Evil" also had more of a religious slant than the previous books. It starts with Harry finding a dying man and talking to G-d. Various characters-not just Miranda-quote scripture. And the animals, too, discuss religion. (It's pointed out that each animal believes that his or her own species is G-d.)

Bottom line: read it for the plot developments on Harry, so you won't be lost when the next book comes out!

The chief strength I find is that Brown succeeds in satirizing the "cozy" mystery genre at the same time she pays homage to it. She has created some genial though not uncomplicated regular characters and a world that she does not puncture even when shaking things up, which she does considerably this time around. She is realistic (well, as realistic as you get when animals have their own lines of dialogue). What began in her first books as a speck on a rural map of Virginia, the town of Crozet in Albemarle County, has become urbanized rural. Government regulations plague postmistress/heroine Mary ("Harry") Hairsteen. You can see the whole South grappling with its past, present and future through this series. In deceptively simple prose, she conveys a strong sense of how time and the world catch up with the individual.

The mystery itself is predictable. But who really reads or even writes "cozies" as brainteasers? Brown is having a lot of fun. She exercises a lot of knowledge about horse culture and airs her views on growth, government, taxes, ageing, and humanity, not to mention tourists who visit the real town of Crozet and don't find it as cute as they think a setting in a "cozy" should be.

Like all books in the series, WHISKER OF EVIL returns us to the host of small-town characters of which we've grown so fond. Postmistress Mary "Harry" Harristein reigns supreme over the tiny town's equally tiny post office, surrounded by an amusing assortment of friends and acquaintances--not the least of which are her two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and her dog, Tucker. And when Harry stumbles over a dying man while walking along Potlicker Creek, her animals are as curious about the situation as she.

Brown has never really bothered to construct a tightly designed plot for any of the Mrs. Murphy novels, and while the motive and means for murder prove particularly ingenious in this novel the story itself is loose even in comparison to previous titles in the series. Still, it's all in good fun, and longtime fans of the series will be greatly interested to note that with WHISKER OF EVIL Brown begins to alter the course of her characters' lives with a host of changes that come for both good and ill. Recommended for a rainy day!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer