Hiss of Death — Rita Mae Brown

Beloved authors Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-conspirator, Sneaky Pie Brown, sow the seeds of an all-new mystery featuring Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, sleuthing cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and that incorrigible corgi Tee Tucker. This time around, the onset of spring ushers in more than hay fever as the animal friends must come to the aid of an ailing Harry to sniff out the season's first blossom of murder.

Ah, spring! The redbuds open, the robins return, and the days lengthen. People's spirits lift -- as do those of their animal companions. As a wave of tilling and planting sweeps over Crozet, Virginia, Harry is especially excited: This year is her first harvesting grapes to sell. But then a health crisis sends her reeling into the forbidding world of hospitals and doctors, treatments and procedures.

Surviving this journey will be tough, but Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker will do their best to steer Harry in the right direction -- as will her ever-helpful husband, Fair. Others will have worse luck: An especially promising nurse's lifeless body is discovered without a mark on her. Then another hospital employee, who had seemed in perfect health, is also found dead. It's clear there's a mystery afoot -- and that's one thing Harry and her menagerie can't keep their noses out of.