REVIEW: Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here
Author: Rita Mae Brown

I started reading the Mrs. Murphy series years ago before I had kids and life got incredi-busy. Somewhere in the middle of the series I got so busy with life (darn adulting!) and lost connection with this series. I popped back in a year or so ago and reviewed a couple of the newer books. This year...since I declared 2018 to be a Read-Whatever-the-Heck-I-Want-To Year....I decided to re-read some favorite books and series. The Mrs. Murphy series was right near the top of the list! I loved these books....and I'm happy to be re-visiting Crozet, VA and its quirky residents once again.

There are 26 books in the series. Wish You Were Here started it all back in 1990. Mary Minor "Harry'' Harristeen is the postmistress of Crozet. She's smack dab in the middle of a slightly messy divorce from her Veternarian husband, Fair. And being a small VA town, locals are gossiping up a storm about her and the situation. Harry tries to keep calm, enjoying the company of her fur babies -- Mrs. Murphy (a tiger striped tabby) and Tee Tucker (a Welsh Corgi). Suddenly, a string of murders takes the town's attention off Harry's divorce. Harry (who has a habit of reading postcards while working in the post office) knows that each of the victims received a post card before their demise with a strange cemetery picture on the front and "Wish You Were Here'' written on the back. Harry immediately starts a bit of amateur sleuthing to ferret out the killer's identity. Mrs. Murphy, Tucker and their furry friends try to help, but it's a bit difficult as humans are too stupid to understand what's being said to them (Mrs. Murphy's opinion....not mine ha ha). Harry, unfortunately, doesn't think about the fact that her poking her nose in might turn the killer's attention to her......       Oops.

I love this series! Rita Mae Brown interjects a lot of her personal beliefs about land use, politics, taxes, feminism and other subjects.....but I don't care.  The characters are engaging and definitely give a peek into affluent, small town southern life. Some of the side characters are a complete snooty turn off....but it all mixes well into the plot. I like the mix of human and animal points of view. Mrs. Murphy and Tee Tucker are main characters just as much as Harry.

In later books, Brown interjected a bit too much of her personal thoughts and muddied up the stories too much with her rants.......but the first few books are more story/less rant.

I listened to the audio book version of this story. Narrated by Kate Forbes, the audio from Recorded Books, Inc is just over 8 hours long. Forbes has a nice voice and does a good job with character voices. I have partial hearing loss, but was easily able to hear and understand this entire book. Very enjoyable listening experience!

I'm going to enjoy re-reading this series! On to book 2, Rest in Pieces.