My first Sneaky Pie book in many years. It will be my last. DNF at 52%.

The setting keeps jumping the timeline from modern day to late 1700’s post-Revolution Virgina. I love history, but if there are any clues how this ties into the present day mystery I /thought/ I was getting, then I’ve missed them. There has been almost no mention of the first murder victim since his body was discovered. The book has been filled (between the bizarre flashbacks) with a feud over a dead society matron’s non-existent fortune by her two kids.

I wanted a mystery, not a family drama. Time to give another author my time. ( )

I had sworn off reading Rita since she seems to get on a soapbox in every book. Gets tiresome. But her soapbox this time was VA history and I like history so I found this fairly interesting. She still does not know how to write straight couples as characters--they come up as kind of wooden shall we say. She has the animals down pat, though. ( )

Fair Harristeen, big animal vet, is making his rounds one day and decides to drop in on new vet Ben Wagner, to see how he's doing. But when he arrives, he finds Ben dead, and immediately calls the police. It seems Ben has been shot at close range, and the only thing missing from his practice are bottles of ketamine, used to tranquilize horses. But who would want them and why?

Meanwhile his wife Harry is visiting her friend Nancy, an antiques dealer, when in walks elderly Candida Perez, who likes nothing more than to talk, and especially about her past. With her are her children, Constance and Ballard, After a lengthy talk with a young woman, Ballard hustles his mother out, but not before greeting Nancy and Harry. Candida mentions as how she wants to re-read her precious family letters, some dated from centuries ago. But while perusing them alone, Constance comes across her mother, face down at her desk, dead. After Ballard and Constance argue about autopsies and burial, the people of the town are drawn into their squabbles about the will and their home, Lone Pine, which has also been in the family for centuries.

Even though the upkeep is going to cost more than either can afford, Constance is determined to keep the home, while Ballard sees no way out but to sell it. They do employ someone to catalog the letters and put them in order, but even this distresses the pair. When there's another murder, this time the police are taking a more serious look at everything that's gone on before, and wonders what to make of it. So does Harry, especially when she's unwittingly drawn deeper into the investigation...

This is the thirtieth book in the series and I practically devour them when they come out. I love mysteries within mysteries, and tales within them as well. Not only are we reading about Harry and her friends in our time, but the book takes us back to the original owners of the farms the families are living on, this time back to 1789, after the American Revolution is recently over, and the struggles the families have there to make their lives in the new country. It's fascinating fiction, and it ties in with the present day so seamlessly that you don't even mind going back and forth in time, as it were.

In our present day, Harry can't help but be curious as to why Ben was murdered, and she shares those questions with her friends Susan, Nancy, and Tazia. Why ketamine? And why would he be murdered over such a small thing when there were thousands of dollars of equipment that wasn't touched? It even gives Fair pause as he is wondering along with his wife.

Ah, but the pets -- Mrs, Murphy, Tucker, Pewter, and puppy Pirate are wondering themselves, but they are not only trying to figure out, but might hold the key to everything. If only they can get their mother Harry to listen...

The clues are there all along, but they are given to us sparingly and we must use our own minds to put the pieces together. Ms. Brown is one of my favorite novelists; her books are so well-written and so well thought out that I am always amazed at how she manages to write stories that are centuries apart but moments together in time.

When we come to the end of the book and the killer is revealed, it is a motive as old as time itself. Having been faced with the same motive from someone close at hand, it never surprises me anymore how people can allow their lives to be twisted like this. But it is what it is, and the book not only gives us a satisfactory ending, it gives us a terrific story to read. Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review. ( )