Murder on the Prowl

Cover retrieved from Goodreads

Murder on the Prowl (Mrs. Murphy #6)

Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown

Bantam Books: 1999, 400 pages
Reviewed by Jessie Park

The Mrs. Murphy Mystery series follows Harry Haristeen and her fellow citizens of the small town of Crozet, Virginia.  Harry has two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, as well as a corgi named Tee Tucker.  Rita Mae Brown, along with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown, delightfully narrate the animals' conversations (although none of the humans can understand) and they help to solve the mysteries that seem to plague the small, rural town.  In Murder on the Prowl, phony obituaries are being published in the local paper and while it seems like a sick joke, no one laughs when the supposedly dead men are later killed.  The killings are in connection to the local private high school, and Mrs. Murphy and friends are on the prowl to solve the crimes, unbeknownst to Harry, who also can't seem to stop her insatiable curiosity from getting her into trouble, too!  Readers don't have to have read the previous books in the series as Brown does a great job catching readers up to speed on the lives of the people in Crozet and she includes a cast of characters list at the beginning of every novel.