A good friend of mine thought he was doing me a favour and bought "The Purrfect Murder" for me. Hoping that the series had picked up again after the last books, I started reading - only to find that nothing has changed.
The first few pages were o.k., but then I started missing the post office, the bits of every day life there and especially Miranda Hoggendobber. The last books are centered about Harry's farm, horse fairs, her little vineyard and this simply does not provide enough interesting background for so many books, considering how many characters die each time.
My impression is that about 50% of the book were about cars/tractors, Virginian values and horses. Sentences such as "The old 1978 Ford F-150 rumbled along the macadam road. The big engine's sound thrilled Harry. If it had a motor in it, she liked it." do not thrill me. Outer appearances, prices of clothing/jewellery/cars/horses may be interesting to Rita Mae Brown, but not to me. I don't want to hear any more of Ms. Brown's blunt political statements. Driving big cars is o.k., because global warming is also caused overpopulation? Please...! Not to mention the unnerving product placement and the growing self-righteousness of some of the main characters.
Maybe these books are not written for people not having lived in Virginia for generations. Sorry, but this definitely was the last book in this series for me. I will stick to the delightful earlier books and avoid any new ones.
