Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here

Rita Mae Brown

4 out of 5

Originally, I had started reading these books out of order and decided that I would probably have a better understanding of who the characters were if I went back to the beginning. Well, apparently Ms Brown does a pretty good job in rehashing past storylines because I don't think that going back really changed my understanding of who anyone really is. So, with this series, you really can start anywhere and not be missing out on who all the main characters are.

Crozet, Virginia, is a typical small town until its secrets explode into murder. Crozet, Virginia's thirty-something post-mistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, has a bad habit of reading postcards not addressed to her. So when Crozet's citizens start turning up murdered, Harry remembers that each received a card with a tombstone on the front and the message "Wish you were here" on the back. So with the help of her cat, Mrs. Murphy and Welsh Corgi, Tucker, Harry sets out to find who is behind the murders and what else is being covered up.

The only thing that throws me off of this series are the small sections where you can tell that Ms Brown is trying to make a political statement. I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I'm here to read a cozy type mystery, not witness the authors political views.

Over all the series is pretty good, the reoccurring characters make the books enjoyable and the easy style that Ms Brown writes in allows the reader to come and go from the storyline - what I call a great "waiting for the kids" kind of book. Easy to pick up and put down without feeling that you have to go back a couple of chapter to remember where you were.