I've been reading this series for years and I feel lucky to have gotten a chance to read this. As always, you get quite the history lesson. It makes it a book within a book and that's quite enjoyable. This is just a well written whodunit full of characters and pets to love.

#29 in one of my most favorite series! This one also switches back and forth between centuries which I actually quite like. I've grown to love all these characters and they feel like family.

~Harry Shivered. No good will come of this, she thought to herself.~
Furmidable Foes by Rita Mae Brown is the 29th Mrs. Murphy mystery which brings Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen and the fur babies together to solve another mystery. I enjoyed the gardening theme of this mystery and the cover is beautifully designed for spring! Harry and Susan with other members of the Dorcas Guild work on the gardens at St. Luke's to restore them to the historic design of 1787. As Harry and the ladies prepare the gardens for the homecoming celebration there is more interest in the mystery of the unknown woman whose body had been previously found in another family's grave. The skeleton dated back to the 1700s and was adorned with the most extravagant pearl and diamond necklace with earrings. Harry also discovers a moonshine still and another body on the ridge of at the back of her property. The mysteries deepen when Jeannie dies at the charity auction and the culprit is discovered to have been caused by a poisoned lipstick! Who would want Jeannie dead? Follow the banter among Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, Tucker, and Pirate, The animals are adorable.
Publication Date: May 19, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Another favorite Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown mystery. Furmidable Foes featured two stories on one. Life, murder and intrigue among slaves and owners in 1878 with the possibly murderous and mysterious disappearance of a prominent slave and a fortune in jewelry paired with a present day murder mystery and an unmarked grave with a fortune in jewelry. These books have quite a following at my library and I will feature them in displays as well as in readers advisory and events.

It's the time of year in Virginia when everything is blooming, and Harry is at her happiest. She lives on her farm with her husband, Fair, a veterinarian, and her four pets -- two cats, Mrs. Murphy and Pewter; and two dogs, Tee Tucker and Pirate. She's involved with the Dorcas Guild in making the churchyard gardens beautiful for the upcoming Homecoming celebration, along with lifelong friend Susan Tucker, and others.

But two of the friends -- Janice and Mags, own a brewery named Bottoms Up. One of their trucks is stolen, along with all its contents and no one knows why. Then at a charity auction, another friend, Jeannie Cordie, drops dead suddenly and no one knows how. Harry, with her strong sense of curiosity, is driven to find the answers to these questions.

In between, the church is still trying to figure out who belonged to the old bones which were found on top of a couple who died in the 1700's, wearing a set of priceless jewels. It's another question Harry wants an answer to, but rightly, it will have to wait in favor of the other problems. When the bones of a much more recent murder are discovered by none other than Pewter, Harry now needs to piece together a more modern mystery, and hope she doesn't lose her own life in the process...

I've been following this series for a long time, and own all of the books. It is that enjoyable. Not only are we watching Harry in her usual quest for answers and looking for a killer, but we have the added bonus of a book-within-a-book. For, you see, Virginia has a rich history, and Ms. Brown melds past with present seamlessly.

We also have the story of the Holloways and the Ewings, two wealthy neighboring families who were part of this country in the aforementioned 1700's, and who have their own mysteries to solve. Watching their stories unfold is almost like having your own window to the past, where while you are in the present, you see bits and pieces of things that have come before. Yes, this is fiction, but as in the present, there are pieces of history interspersed with the story that is completely fascinating.

When we watch Harry go about her daily routine, it is amusing to hear the animals tell their own stories in their own ways and put their own spin on everything. I love listening to their tales of woe (as cats and dogs are wont to do when they don't get their own way); and as a pet owner myself, I can relate.

It all seems so simple -- Harry and her friends are doing no more than any of us would -- go to lunch, prepare gardens, etc.; but it is the mystery itself that is the most absorbing -- who would want to kill a woman who supposedly had nothing to do with anything? Harry's investigation, while it does not involve asking people questions, involves only her using her wits, and she is indeed one who is able to put things together quickly.

When we get close to the end and it all comes together, I have to say that it leaves me wanting more: more of the historical side, and the next book in this series. My only hope is that I won't have to wait long to read the next one. Highly recommended.

another fun book in Mrs. Murphy series. Rita Mae Brown gives us history lessons as well as good who-done-it.. the sries id wonderful.of course,because of the animals.

A new Mrs. Murphy mystery is here, and another chance to visit the Virginia countryside in spring. Neighbors gather at the Lutheran church to spruce up the grounds, putting in new plantings and making the place beautiful for a special Homecoming gathering of church members from all over. As the folks work, they chat about the mysterious set of human remains found atop the coffins of another traditional burial. This set of remains had the tatters of a once-beautiful gown and a splendid necklace adorning the body. The church hopes to find the proper family who descends from this forgotten one, and reunite them with their family jewelry, or failing that, perhaps place it in a museum.

The pets, Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker, join the other pets in racing around the grounds in play. They comment on all the bustle and remember that time when Murphy and Pewter joined the Lutheran cats in eating all the communion wafers.

The peonies are a particularly lovely shade of magenta this year. Wouldn't that be a lovely shade for lipstick? At least one of the ladies thinks so, and all are delighted when they are later given gifts of new lipsticks, and they put them to use. Later at the gathering, one of them dies of poisoning.

The book tells two stories in two time periods, one in the modern era, one in slave times. The story of the slaves tells of three slaves that fled, two men and a woman. They find a plantation on the other side of the Potomac where they can live and work, but all is not perfect, as the common-law husband of the woman treats her cruelly at times. Slave catchers find them and take them back to their former home, hamstringing one man so he cannot run away. Now they are back in the control of a vindictive mistress, and one is crippled for life, limiting what he can do. The three know about another slave that fled for her freedom at about the same time they took foot for theirs, and know that she fled with a magnificent necklace. None will admit to knowing anything about the necklace.

Harry Haristeen now finds that she and her best friend are enmeshed in the mystery of why their good friend was poisoned, plus the mystery of why another body was found in the woods, beside a still. The making of country waters has been a long tradition of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it's not unusual to find a still once in a while. Finding a dead man in the same place is less common. A truckload of stolen beer is also an odd occurrence.

Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker find themselves struggling to keep their mistress safe as she keeps investigating things that the killer would rather have left undisturbed.

I enjoy the stories. They're a nice way to pass the time with old friends.

Another great paralleled cozy mystery balancing the past and the the current timeline, the historical side is becoming just like family as are the current timeline characters.