Читать онлайн «Tail Gait»
Автор Рита Мэй Браун
Copyright © 2015 by American Artists, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
BANTAM BOOKS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Michael Gellatly
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Rita Mae, author.
Tail Gait : a Mrs. Murphy Mystery / Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown ; illustrated by Michael Gellatly.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-553-39236-4
eBook ISBN 978-0-553-39237-1
1. Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Women detectives—Virginia—Fiction. 4. Women cat owners—Fiction. 5. Cats—Fiction. 6. Mystery fiction. I. Brown, Sneaky Pie-author. II.
Gellatly, Michael, illustrator. III. Title.PS3552. R698T33 2015
813’. 54—dc23
2014049098
eBook ISBN 9780553392371
Cover design: Beverly Leung
Cover illustrations: Beverly Leung,
v4. 0
ep
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Cast of Characters
Mary Minor Haristeen—“Harry,” just forty-one, is a Smith graduate who wound up being Crozet, Virginia’s postmistress for sixteen years. Now she’s trying to make money farming. Having survived breast cancer, Harry prefers not to think about it. She more or less lives on the surface of life until curiosity pulls her deeper…as it inevitably does.
Pharamond Haristeen, D. V. M. —“Fair” specializes in equine reproduction. After graduating from Auburn he married his childhood sweetheart, Harry. A year older than his wife, he reads people’s emotions much better than she does.
Susan Tucker—Outgoing, adept at any and all social exchange, she’s Harry’s best friend since cradle days. She loves Harry but worries about how Harry just blunders into things.
The Very Reverend Herbert Jones—A Vietnam veteran, Army, he is pastor at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, which is well over two hundred years old. A man of deep conviction and feeling, he’s known Harry since her childhood.
Deputy Cynthia Cooper—Tall, lean, and Harry’s next-door neighbor, renting the adjoining farm. Cooper loves law enforcement. From time to time, Harry meddles in Cooper’s business, but in her defense the Smith graduate has an uncanny knack of uncovering crucial information.
