Cat of the Century Flops

Cat of the Century by Rita Mae Brown (F BRO Main, Avoca; CD F BRO Main; MP3 F BRO Main)
Reviewed by Doris

I have been an avid reader of Brown’s Sneaky Pie books since I Wish You Were Here (1990), the first book featuring Mrs. Murphy the tiger cat and Tucker, the corgi.  Soon Pewter the lazy, fat cat joined Murphy and Tucker as they helped their owner Mary Hairsteen solve mysteries. The animals were, of course, smarter than the people, but the stories were always fun and lively and very enjoyable.  You may notice I am using the past tense here.  That’s because Cat of the Century is my last Rita Mae Brown book. I rarely totally ditch an author unless I find his or her work just unreadable, and I have reached that point with Brown.

The last couple of books in the series from Brown have become more and more a soap box for her political views.  Frankly, I don’t care what her views are.  I read mysteries because I want a good story and characters about whom I can care. In Cat of the Century every other page is some long diatribe about the economy or how the United States is going to Hell in a hand basket. While I might agree with some small portion of what Brown’s spouts here, I found the constant hammering of it into my mystery very distracting and boring.  She does try to disguise her political ramblings by using two characters who are 100 and 98 years old respectively as the sources of her delivery.  They repeatedly compare the country today with the country of their youth, and they do so to the everlasting detriment to the country and this book.

Cat of the Century actually does have the bones of a good plot, something that has been missing in the last three or four books in this series. Brown uses real college William Woods University as the setting of a celebration of the 100^th birthday of Aunt Tally Urquhart. Using Tally’s day as a major fund-raiser for the college lets Brown bring news headlines into her book with a plot based on shady financial dealings and schemes.  Harry goes to William Woods to honor Tally, taking with her Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker. People start to die. Financial records disappear. Tally and her ninety-eight year old best friend Inez Carpenter begin very long and very boring rants about the decline of the country. So, the plot gets lost or meanders along with no real kick to it while you the reader miss some of the great characters like Boom Boom and Big and Little Mim who have made this series worth reading. If I were Mrs. Murphy, Tucker, and Pewter I would be looking for a new owner.  Needless to say, I am looking for a new author.