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Murder Unleashed (Mags Rogers #2)
Unscrupulous bankers, abandoned homes, and a cold-blooded killer on the loose: Mags Rogers and her wire-haired dachshund, Baxter, digg up the dirt in the second scintillating novel in New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown’s delightful new series featuring some doggedly determined canine sleuths and their intrepid human companions.
Settling into ranch life outside...more
Settling into ranch life outside...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
October 4th 2011
by Ballantine Books
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This series is really growing on me. Quite a departure from the Sneaky Pie collaborations, this book endears you to a different location and group of well formed new characters that soon has you forgetting they are only characters in a book.
Spunky 80's something, Jeep Reed is our main sleuth. She is beyond wealthy but remembers to keep in touch with the everyday person. Jeep owns a cattle spread and the book opens with her neighbor, Howie Norris being attacked on his own land. While looking into...more
Spunky 80's something, Jeep Reed is our main sleuth. She is beyond wealthy but remembers to keep in touch with the everyday person. Jeep owns a cattle spread and the book opens with her neighbor, Howie Norris being attacked on his own land. While looking into...more
Rita Mae Brown's animal books are true mystery "cozies." They're an easy and fast read. All of them are similar in terms of themes and even organization. The pets "talk" with each other, ponder on the eccentricities of their humans, and help solve some sort of crime. The primary human characters are interesting as people. They aren't just cardboard cutouts, even though so much of the plots are formulaic.
"Murder Unleashed" takes place in Reno instead of Ms. Brown's usual Virginia settings. Reno...more
"Murder Unleashed" takes place in Reno instead of Ms. Brown's usual Virginia settings. Reno...more
Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series is one of the reasons I became interested in learning more about the Pembroke Welsh Corgi breed of dogs. Murder Unleashed is Brown's first of a canine series (no cats allowed). Her books are cozy mysteries but she injects them with a large dose of social consciousness. The big banks and the housing bust figure into this story. She's not preachy at all, rather she weaves her research into the story so as to make it integral for the reader. She foresaw that nati...more
All in all, I liked this book. It was a bit over idealistic when it came to the "goodness" of people and how they act and speak. Or perhaps that is just my experience that I haven't run into folks like the characters portrayed in this book.
Two little pieces of this book that I enjoyed was the character introduction before the story even began. Just a rundown of who's who in a few sentences. Never have come across something like that in the past as far as I can recall. The second item was the "d...more
Two little pieces of this book that I enjoyed was the character introduction before the story even began. Just a rundown of who's who in a few sentences. Never have come across something like that in the past as far as I can recall. The second item was the "d...more
If I could give this zero, I would. I own all of this author's other series in hardcover. This is the FIRST time I have ever put one of her books down without finishing it, I just couldn't make myself read anymore. My mother gave up on it as well. IS there a mystery? I was more than three quarters thru and hadn't found it yet. This isn't a mystery. This is a thinly veiled political diatribe. I agree that homelessness, the shameful amount of people who go without food or utilities right here in o...more
I picked this one up in the library while browsing. I have read several of the author's Mrs. Murphy books and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give this a try even though it is not the first in its series.
I enjoyed the introduction of the cast of characters at the beginning. I occasionally lose track of characters, and this was a great reference. The mystery was good and I enjoyed the dog characters as well, but I felt that the author was a bit preachy about the mortgage/forclosure crisis. Not tha...more
I enjoyed the introduction of the cast of characters at the beginning. I occasionally lose track of characters, and this was a great reference. The mystery was good and I enjoyed the dog characters as well, but I felt that the author was a bit preachy about the mortgage/forclosure crisis. Not tha...more
I checked the first book in the series, A Nose For Justice, out as a audio book. When I saw this one in book form on the shelf I had to check it out. I love the setting, Reno, Nevada, and the two main characters, Jeep Reed and Mags Rogers. This time Jeep and Mags with their faithful dogs Baxter and Kings are approached by a local real estate agent to help people living in abandoned houses on Reno's Yolanda Street. Brown has done a massive amount of research on the housing bubble burst and does...more
The 2nd novel in Rita Mae Brown's series dealing with Nevada & the dogs, "Murder Unleashed" is an about average fare tale for her in general. The story involves the murder of an investment banker & the dealings w/in both the politics of Reno & also the foreclosure industry. Brown's story is pretty much straight forward with our characters Mags & Aunt Jeep working to solve the mystery with the help of the dogs who have very little relevance w/in the story as a whole. Not the best...more
If you like cozy mysteries and dogs, you may like this book. I don't read that many cozies, but this was a relaxing, fairly enjoyable read. As in the first book in this series, the dialogue felt oddly stagey and full of info-dumps, and the narration tends to tell, not show, how the characters are feeling. This time, I also guessed the villain early on, though I didn't know what the scheme was. But even so, the setting is richly detailed, the human & canine characters appealing, and the resea...more
This book tells about the effects of the foreclosures in Reno and the number of people affected by them
and the unemployment rate that are a part of the downturn in the economy. How people down on their
luck try to keep themselves and their children safe and secure.
It is a mystery and like Rita Mae Brown's other books it features talking animals who try to
participate in the solution in the murder of a Banker and others.
I can't say I enjoy the animals. Surely Ms Brown can find a better vehicle to...more
and the unemployment rate that are a part of the downturn in the economy. How people down on their
luck try to keep themselves and their children safe and secure.
It is a mystery and like Rita Mae Brown's other books it features talking animals who try to
participate in the solution in the murder of a Banker and others.
I can't say I enjoy the animals. Surely Ms Brown can find a better vehicle to...more
I'm happy to report that this new story line seems to be settling in. The formula of talking animals + educational, culturally relevant content + warm, likable, but uncommon in pop lit characters = win for me. The first book in the series felt more raw and I'm happy they're fitting together better. It's easy to spot the killer, but hard telling if that is because I've read the rest of her mysteries and am conditioned. RMB's are the only mysteries I read, so not having anything else to compare th...more
Rita Mae Brown wrote this unusual mystery, where the housing market crash is analyzed with a certain precision, while a story is told. The unauthorized tenants of a housing development near Reno are treated with compassion without sentimentality. A kind of "can do" attempt to get utilities and another chance at the American dream reaches a bit far at times, but still is worth reading.
Her one twist is the interpretation of the dog "language" of pets that is better than it sounds.
Her one twist is the interpretation of the dog "language" of pets that is better than it sounds.
Well, I like Rita Mae Brown's hook of having animals of the main characters help to solve the mystery but this book was just... awful. The book was soooooooooooo full of political tripe that could have been said in a page rather than dragged throughout the book in several pages. I know the author was trying to make a point, but she should write a book about politics instead. BORING BOOK. I finished it because I didn't have another book to read. Don't bother with it.
I've enjoyed RMB mysteries for many years. Unfortunately I was able to put this one down several times before finishing it. The politics were blatant in this mystery. For one, I don't read mysteries for politics, and two, I don't agree with her politics. Also, she seemed to contradict herself a couple times. To be fair I think she made a good effort at describing what local help might look like. Would it be effective? Only if reality reflected her characters.
Ok, I have always been a huge fan of Rita Mae Brown and have been reading her books for over 15 years. But lately her books, especially this one, have been so political. She goes on and on, page after page about everything that is wrong with the government, the economy and anything else she feels like preaching about. I had to stop reading this book about half way through because there was no story. She was once a really fun mystery writer.
I do however like the characters in this new series but...more
I do however like the characters in this new series but...more
What happened? Rita Mae Brown used to write books that were entertaining and seemed at least proficiently written with regard to grammar, punctuation, and general story flow. If you want to enjoy RMB as an author or read a sort of silly novel, don't sell yourself short by reading this. Please pick up a different book.
This bit of disappointing fluff falls somewhere between Ayn Rand's pedantic rants and a tract distributed for free on the sidewalk.
This bit of disappointing fluff falls somewhere between Ayn Rand's pedantic rants and a tract distributed for free on the sidewalk.
I really enjoyed the politics and the discussion of the current financial situation in the US and around the world.
I live in a country with very safe banks, however, the failures of the American system hurt Canada and other countries as well. It is good to read the discussion, which is well thought out in this book.
The mystery in this book was definitely secondary, the characters were gripping. I look forward to the third book of this series.
I live in a country with very safe banks, however, the failures of the American system hurt Canada and other countries as well. It is good to read the discussion, which is well thought out in this book.
The mystery in this book was definitely secondary, the characters were gripping. I look forward to the third book of this series.
I always enjoy the animals in a RMB novel, but the people in this one seemed especially cardboard-ish. And preachy. It did help me realize aspects of the debt/mortgage/housing crisis that I didn't know before, but that's not really why I read a murder mystery. And I figured it out about 2/3rds through. I hate that. So, mixed review. RMB fans will still enjoy it, but it probably won't pull in new fans.
I am a Rita Mae Brown fan. I liked her fox hunting series a lot, I enjoy the Mrs. Murphy series. I am enjoying this series, too.....there are no cats and the horses are hardly mentioned, but I enjoy the characters and the animals...and, the author does do a good job researching her topics..yes, it's a fiction murder mystery, but there are other things going on and it's nice to read a book that has factual information about the setting...makes it more enjoyable. Can't wait for more books in this...more
Interesting characters but not enough character development. The story seemed to be nothing more than an opportunity for the author to preach about her pet causes. There wasn't much mystery and there wasn't much to care about, unfortunately. I liked this author's early Mrs. Murphy books, but the last few books of hers that I have read have been progressively more preachy.
I have to say that it seems the more books an author writes, the more predictable and boring later ones become. Plus I read this mindless stuff, precisely to take my mind off all the craziness going on in the world. For me, it's entertainment. And to read a book using the current economic crises as the backdrop just turned me off. Plus, it really dragged on.......
Revisited a series that I've read off and on over the years. While I liked the story line of community working together to deal with people left homeless by the financial crisis, the dogs' conversation about humans just doesn't work for me anymore. It's a nice, cozy read that would be ok for a summer read at the beach or by the pool - especially if you like dogs.
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I love Rita Mae Brown's writing. Her cozies are delightful but are never "just" mind candy.
This is the second book in a series set in Reno, Nevada. Jeep Reed has retired to run a ranch there- but retired does not mean boring. Jeep, her two dogs King and Baxter, and her Grand Niece Mags try to help a group of squatters who are down on their luck. Who knew their good will would lead to murder and buried treasure?!
This is the second book in a series set in Reno, Nevada. Jeep Reed has retired to run a ranch there- but retired does not mean boring. Jeep, her two dogs King and Baxter, and her Grand Niece Mags try to help a group of squatters who are down on their luck. Who knew their good will would lead to murder and buried treasure?!
I was a little disappointed in this book. The story was OK, but too much message, not enough plot. The characters were good, not too much depth. The dogs were a nice touch, added to the story, but could have been developed more. Again, this would have been a better read with less message.
I am not sure how much I liked this. The plot seemed contrived and it was not easy to like all the characters. I would give it more stars if the animals had a greater part to play in the story. However, I disliked the "conversation" between the animals; it seemed juvenile to me.
MP3 CD Narrated by Johanna Parker
I loved this book and it's a cozy. I love finding a cozy book and always seem to remember them. Rita Mae Brown writes a good mystery with amazing characters and beautiful animals. I highly recommend this book and will be looking for the the first book in this series.
I loved this book and it's a cozy. I love finding a cozy book and always seem to remember them. Rita Mae Brown writes a good mystery with amazing characters and beautiful animals. I highly recommend this book and will be looking for the the first book in this series.
Jan 16, 2012
Pamela
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Pamela by:
no one
Thank you Rita Mae! This is her best book in awhile. Reno, Nevada is the setting of this latest Jeep Reed novel. There are squatters in the abandoned houses, homeless and starving. And as always a murderer. We are all so tired of hearing about the financial crisis but Rita Mae makes the housing bubble and collapse real and interesting.
A nice little mystery, not totally predictable, but also not very meaningful, really did not care intensely about anyone in the book, so it wasn't like I was hanging on the edge of my seat to see what happened. Maybe it just hits a little too close to home as it's sort of wrapped around the whoel foreclosure debacle of our times.
This is the second in Rita Mae Brown's new canine mystery series. We learn a lot about the financial meltdown,and its effects in Reno, Nevada on the now homeless. An enjoyable story, and much research has obviously been done.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| rita mae brown | 1 | 7 | Aug 31, 2011 07:48pm |
Rita Mae Brown is a prolific American writer, most known for her mysteries and other novels (Rubyfruit Jungle). She is also an Emmy-nominated screenwriter.
More about Rita Mae Brown...
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Feb 13, 2012 04:25pm