Claws for Alarm

February 14, 2024 – Claws for Alarm (Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown). The sequence of events, past and present, that began with A Hiss before Dying and continued with Probable Claws, Whiskers in the Dark, and Furmidable Foes resumes. The modern timeline picks up in Septmber 2019; the historical in spring 1789.

I'll start by saying that it took me a LOOOOONG time to read this 249-page book. At one point, I had stopped reading it for so long that I started over – only to still take a long time to read it. Mostly, the issue is with me. I just don't have the time or energy to read. But, having said that, I feel like this series is losing steam and I'm losing interest.

As for this book, the present-day plot once again finds Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen embroiled in a series of murders in the not-so-sleepy hamlet of Crozet, Virginia. The first character to go is the new veterinarian in town, Benjamin Wagner. No sooner had he opened his fancy new clinic than someone kills him and steals all his ketamine. Soon more ketamine goes missing and more people die. One of those is Candida Ballard Perez, the elderly but still sharp matriarch of a family that can trace its roots in Virginia back to the Revolutionary War. Not only does the family tree date back centuries but so does a collection of letters and other documents that Candida's son and daughter are now fighting over.

Meanwhile, in the 18th century, the upstart nation has a constitution. Now it needs a military to defend it. While the menfolk are busy with that, there's also something unsettling going on. A young white girl has gone missing. No one seems to know what happened to her (us readers know that someone took her), but no one seems inclined to go out looking for her, either.

The present-day murders do get solved with some help from Harry's menagerie of pets. But, to be honest, I feel as though this murder mystery could have been wrapped up much sooner if only the characters, both human and animal, had looked a little harder or asked better questions. When it did finally get solved, it felt rather rushed.

As for the historical timeline, we're again left with more questions than answers. For example, what happened to the girl who went missing? Who took her? Why? Is anyone ever going to look for her? There's also an episode where land is being cleared and a body turns up in the field. Whose body is it? How long was it there? How did the person die? I get the feeling that we'll never know and that it's not all that important, anyway.