Читать онлайн «Nine Lives to Die»
Автор Рита Мэй Браун
Copyright © 2014 by American Artists, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
BANTAM BOOKS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Michael Gellatly
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Rita Mae.
Nine lives to die : a Mrs. Murphy mystery / Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown; illustrated by Michael Gellatly. pages cm
ISBN 978-0-345-53050-9
eBook ISBN 978-0-345-53974-8
1. Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Women detectives—Virginia—Fiction. 4. Women cat owners—Fiction. I. Gellatly, Michael, illustrator. II. Title.
PS3552. R698N57 2014
813’.
54—dc23 2014000989Jacket design: Beverly Leung
v3. 1
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
Cast of Characters
Mary Minor Haristeen—“Harry,” just forty-one, a Smith graduate who wound up being Crozet, Virginia’s postmistress for sixteen years, is now trying to make some money by farming. She survived breast cancer and prefers not to think about it. She more or less lives on the surface of life until her curiosity pulls her deeper.
Pharamond Haristeen, D. V. M. —“Fair” specializes in equine reproduction. After graduating from Auburn he married his childhood sweetheart, Harry. He reads people’s emotions much better than his wife does. He is a year older than Harry.
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. He is 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 as she rents the adjoining farm, she loves law enforcement. Harry meddles in Cooper’s business from time to time but the Smith graduate has an uncanny knack of finding important information.
Aunt Tally Urquhart—This 101-year-old aunt of Marilyn Sanburne, Sr. , does what she wants when she wants. She’s not in too much evidence in this volume, which gives everyone a rest.
