WISH YOU WERE HERE, by Rita...

WISH YOU WERE HERE, by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown (Bantam: $4.99, illustrated). Rita Mae Brown insists that her tiger cat helped write this murder mystery, but it’s suspiciously close in style and tone to her own work. The setting--the small Virginia town of Crozet--recalls Runnymede in “Bingo,” and the spunky, resourceful postmistress-turned-sleuth Mary Minor (Harry) Haristeen bears more than a passing resemblance to Nicole (Nickel) Smith, the newspaper editor in the earlier novel. Harry’s cat, Mrs. Murphy, and her Welsh corgi, Tee Tucker, recount much of the story, a conceit that’s sure to delight animal lovers. Murphy and Tucker feel they’re the ones investigating the string of murders--with a little help and a lot of interference from their semi-competent human assistants. Brown fills Crozet with so many colorful characters (human and animal) that the reader may have trouble remembering who’s who, but she tells a thoroughly entertaining tale.