The Litter of the Law: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery

Chapter one of bestseller Brown’s enchanting 21st Mrs. Murphy mystery (after 2012’s The Big Cat Nap) finds Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen and her veterinarian husband, Fare, enjoying a drive through the central Virginia countryside one beautiful October day. A squabble among their backseat passengers—tiger cat Mrs. Murphy; Pewter, Mrs. Murphy’s gray, overweight feline sidekick; and Tucker, a corgi—prompts the couple to pull over by a cornfield. A scarecrow that they spot in the middle of the field turns out, on closer inspection, to be a dead body. While the residents of Crozet, Va., continue to prepare for the Halloween Hayride, to raise money for the town library, the death toll mounts, and Harry resolves to catch a killer. Brown demonstrates once again why she’s the queen of the talking animal cozy subgenre. Agent: Wendy Weil, Wendy Weil Agency. (Oct.)