CATCH AS CAT CAN

Crozet, Virginia, divided equally between First Families who settled there soon after Pocahontas freed John Smith, weekenders from nearby Washington’s diplomatic corps, and pets, livestock, and ferals who archly critique the resident humans, is gearing up for the Dogwood Festival and the Wrecker’s Ball. But trouble’s a-brewing. Someone has denuded Miranda Hogendobber’s 1961 Ford Falcon of its hubcaps; there’s a dead pileated woodpecker in the road; and Seth O’Bannon’s pushy brother Roger, his partner in the local salvage yard—who keeps asking out snobbish Lottie Pearson, Assistant Director for Major Gifts at the university, and getting stiffed—is soon face down in a teacup, presumably dead of natural causes. Smashingly beautiful BoomBoom Craycroft could care less. She’s arranging a blind date for postmistress Harry Haristeen with dishy Uruguayan dignitary Diego Aybar, to the disgust of Harry’s ex, six-feet-five veterinarian Fair. While Harry’s housemates Tee Tiger the corgi, fat cat Pewter, and brainy sleuth extraordinaire Mrs. Murphy the feline traipse about the countryside observing what fools these mortals be, one man is hanged, another stabbed (with half a million dollars sitting in his safe), and it turns out pushy old Roger was poisoned. The none-too-logical resolution, tying in carjacking, internationalism, and the home-grown avaricious, will make the Wrecker’s Ball the most exciting in years.

Like its forebears (Claws and Effect, 2001, etc.): catnip to some, treacle to others.