Catch As Cat Can

Rita Mae Brown's cats and dogs provide a plot device that mixes fun and murder, but pets as well as people here are in sore need of editing. Too much sniping between an overabundance of characters, both four-legged and two, along with a glut of trivia, make for heavy sighs before final solution time. However, narrator Kate Forbes does an astonishing job of portraying all of the characters involved, from Big Mim right on down to Pope Rat. Her rendering of the "First Families of Virginia" accent is subtle yet perfect, not too overly Southern as so often happens. While the written version bogs down, Forbes saves the audio version with her charming work. P.H.M. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine