Cat of the Century

Written by Rita Mae Brown

Narrated by Kate Forbes

Harry Haristeen, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tee Tucker return for this cozy from the New York Times best-selling tandem of Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown. When Harry's beloved Aunt Tally approaches her 100th birthday, her alma mater schedules a birthday celebration that doubles as a fundraiser. But then a member of the alumnae association disappears. Her car is on campus, yet she's nowhere to be seen-and Tucker has sniffed out traces of human blood.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9781440792434

Reviews for Cat of the Century

[ffortsa · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

an indifferent plot, and the story takes multiple breaks for Brown's characters to talk political philosophy of the simplest and most irritating form

[donnarowe-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I decided to give this book another try. I wish Ms. Brown didn't feel the need to insert her political views at every opportunity. It interferes with the flow of the story, which was quite good when she remembered she was writing a mystery, not an op-ed.

[stormchase-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's ok but the plot is tidied up a bit too hastily and the constant political ranting about taxes got on my nerves.

[missjessie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Cat of the Century, the 18th in the line of Sneaky Pie Browne mysteries, concerns, as usual, murder.

I enjoyed the plot-line part of this mystery, as always--a little light and not too hard to figure out who did it, but enjoyable.

I am coming more and more to object, however, to the endless preaching of Rita Mae Brown on whatever her current political agenda happens to be. This book was by far the worst in that respect, and while I think it's proper as an author to include your own political/environmental/criminal justice/racial/gay agendas, to name but a few, after awhile it gets real old. Especially as each view is not integrated into the plot, but takes the form of a diatribe given by whatever character comes to hand.

I hope Ms. Brown tones down her soap-box preaching in future novels, or I'll have to start thinking about whether it's worth the effort (and boredom) to read them.

[jammies_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Good story, way too much of the author jamming her personal opinion about taxes into the mouths of her human characters.

[hklibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rita went to the college of focus in this book as a requested speaker and fell in love with the campus and their Midwest values. Then she decided to focus a story around it. While the book was not bad and the mystery was ok, I felt that it had an old lady/biddy quality to it (and it really did--she was 100 yrs old that Aunt Tally). I don't think it is me, I think Rita needs to retire. Her cookie cutter characters are sooo predictable and maple syrupy wholesome. Takes me many chapters to get into the book. She can't write any romance for straights to save her life. What gets me thru the books is the animals talking to each other--and that is a small part of the book.Rita, rest on your pile of money and your laurels. Or find a way to write the way you did when you started out--like Bingo. Those were the GOOD books.

[greycatbird · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed all of the Sneaky Pie Brown books and pretty much all the RMB books I have read....up until now! She seems way more interested in having a platform for her opinions and politics than developing a good story. The book was preachy, slow and kind of boring. I mostly agree with most of her opinions but this is a novel and I want a good story!

[khiemstra631 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The latest Mrs. Murphy Mystery takes place mostly in Missouri at William Woods University. Alas, Harry is mostly in Virginia. This leads to a weakening of the story line as it's hard to get anybody very excited about crimes that happened hundreds of miles away. Finally the action does move to Virginia leading to local involvement. The strong point of the book is the involvement of Aunt Tally Urquhart in the plot as she turned 100-years-old. I have always found Aunt Tally to be an interesting character. This books' a miss in a long chain of hits in this series. Sorry, Rita Mae!

[readanon · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have enjoyed this series for years, but in this book I felt that the mystery kind of got lost behind all the political, environmental, religious, etc. sermonizing. While some of the issues may be valid, this kind of book is not the place to preach about them. I would like to see the series get back on track with much more concentration on the story itself.