Wish You Were Here
by Rita Mae Brown
Copyright: 1990
Pages: 320
Read: April 3 – April 8, 2019
Rating: 4/5
Source: Library (e-book)
Blurb: Curiosity just might be the death of Mrs. Murphy–and her human companion, Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen. Small towns are like families: Everyone lives very close together. . .and everyone keeps secrets. Crozet, Virginia, is a typical small town-until its secrets explode into murder. Crozet’s thirty-something post-mistress, Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, has a tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and a Welsh Corgi (Tucker), a pending divorce, and a bad habit of reading postcards not addressed to her. When Crozet’s citizens start turning up murdered, Harry remembers that each received a card with a tombstone on the front and the message “Wish you were here” on the back. Intent on protecting their human friend, Mrs. Murphy and Tucker begin to scent out clues. Meanwhile, Harry is conducting her own investigation, unaware her pets are one step ahead of her. If only Mrs. Murphy could alert her somehow, Harry could uncover the culprit before the murder occurs–and before Harry finds herself on the killer’s mailing list.
Review: I did something that I never ever do – I checked out a library e-book solely for the purpose of fulfilling a Goodreads challenge. I needed a book with a cat on the cover. I have over 500 physical books on my shelves at my house and if you can believe it, not a single one of those books has a cat on the cover. Who knew?! So off I went in search of something easily obtainable that sounded somewhat interesting that would fulfill this challenge requirement. I knew that I would likely be looking for a cozy mystery, but I was ready for something a little lighter than my usual reading. This book is the one I found. It sounded interesting enough and I could immediately download it to my iPad for reading. Win-win in my book.
What I was not prepared for was to love the book! Like, seriously! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I found myself sneaking in pages when I shouldn’t have been, ha! And considering how much I dislike reading e-books, I know this book was good.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but I really loved them all. They all had a quirk (or two) and I loved the small-town vibe that the book has. The overall mystery itself was interesting – and I didn’t have the murderer even on my radar as the killer. It wasn’t necessarily a shock, but I was convinced it was someone else. Wrong! I loved the little conversations between Mrs. Murphy, Tucker and the rest of the animals in this little town. It’s not something that I ever would have thought I would enjoy, but it really worked for this book. I will say that while this book is technically a cozy mystery, there is some pretty strong language throughout it.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up on a complete whim and I’m really glad that I did! I hope I can continue on with this series sooner rather than later (I know, I know … I always say that). A good book that I’d definitely recommend.
Tales of a Book Addict 