The Tail of the Tip-Off

Bantam. Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. 2003. Hardcover. 0553801589 . 1.08 x 9.44 x 6.04 Inches; 320 pages; <b>The Tail of the Tip-Off<br><br></b>When winter hits Crozet, Virginia, it hits hard--and hangs on for months. That&#8217;s nothing new to postmistress Mary Minor &#8220;Harry&#8221; Haristeen and her friends, who keep warm with hard work, hot toddies, and rabid rooting for the University of Virginia&#8217;s women&#8217;s basketball team at the old stadium affectionately dubbed &#8220;The Clam.&#8221; But the usual postgame high spirits are laid low when contractor H. H. Donaldson drops dead in the parking lot. And pretty soon word has spread that it wasn&#8217;t a heart attack that did him in. It just doesn&#8217;t sit right with Harry that one of her fellow fans--perhaps even an acquaintance or neighbor sitting close by in the stands--is a murderer. And as tiger cat Mrs. Murphy is all too aware, things that don&#8217;t sit right with Harry make her restless, curious, and prone to poking her not-very-sensitive human nose into dangerous places. So the animals start paying closer attention to what the people around them are doing--and they&#8217;re the first ones to realize when the next murder occurs.<br><br>It seems obvious to Harry that the deaths are connected--and she intends to find out exactly how. There&#8217;s no shortage of suspects, considering that H.H. was a ladies&#8217; man who&#8217;d left a trail of broken hearts all over town--the most recent belonging to his wife-- and that the second murder victim was not very popular in Crozet.As the police launch their investigation, Harry picks up clues through savvy questioning of everyone she knows. But it&#8217;s the critters who are most attuned to trouble--they scent something wicked wafting Harry&#8217;s way on the tail of the next snowstorm. And as Harry draws closer to the truth about a brutal killer, Mrs. Murphy and her friends realize it&#8217;s up to them to make sure their intrepid mom lands on her feet. .