New York Times bestselling authors Rita Mae Brown
and her feline partner, Sneaky Pie Brown, return with a
new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the
sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and corgi Tee
Tucker. But are they any match for a killer who’s made an
entire town suspect by committing…Autumn
has arrived in cozy Crozet, Virginia, and that means the
town’s inhabitants are hard at work in home and garden
preparing for winter. Harry is planning to harvest her
first crop of Petit Manseng grapes along with her beloved
sunflowers. Meanwhile, her recent marriage to Fair and her
friendship with Deputy Cynthia Cooper, who’s rented nearby
Blair Farm, are flourishing. But even when peace descends
on the idyllic countryside, murder is lurking.Mrs.
Carla Paulson is one of the diamond-encrusted “come-here”
set who has descended on Crozet with plenty of wealth and
no feeling for country ways. She’s determined to make her
new house the envy of all her well-heeled friends—and
enemies—and she’s hired architect Tazio Chappers to build
it. From the start, the project—and Mrs. Paulson—
turns into a major headache relieved only by a side trip
to study Thomas Jefferson’s extraordinary summer home at
Poplar Forest. Harry couldn’t foresee that a day later
Mrs. Paulson would be found stabbed to death at a gala
fund-raiser with Harry’s friend, Tazio Chappers, standing
over her, holding the knife.Now Harry must solve
what seems to everyone else an open-and-shut case. Every
other human, that is. For her four-legged friends see it
Harry’s way. But will they have to choose between catching
the purrfect killer or saving Harry?