Ein routinierter Krimi, der mit einer hierzulande eher unbekannten historischen Zeit bekannt macht. Der amerikanische Unabhängigkeitskrieg bildet die Rahmenhandlung um die Ermordung des beliebten Geschichtsprofessors Ginger McConnell und des ehemaligen Sportstars Frank Creseys, der obwohl Obdachloser Trinker noch immer seiner Leidenschaft der Geschichte Amerikas frönt. Harry und ihre Tiere können es jedoch nicht lassen und ermitteln neben den offiziellen Stellen mit, nicht ohne Gefahren. Mir hat das Buch gut gefallen. Leider sind keine neuen Bücher der Serie mehr übersetzt worden, bis auf das folgende, das noch darauf wartet, gelesen zu werden.

The 23rd Mrs Murphy mystery uses a different method than other books in this series: the solution for the murder of a UVA history professor has a lot to do with what happened during the American war of independence. Thus, there are two storylines, the usual one which tells about what is happening in 2015 and another one which is set during the war. The reader has to get used to two sets of characters. The ones in the 18th century are described quite well and I really liked this storyline, how it tells about the prisoners of war etc. I don't know much about this war and now I'm a little more familiar with it. The modern story and the actual crime however were actually quite poor. The characters weren't worked out very well, it was obvious why the professor had been killed and also who was the killer. Harry's naiveté towards danger kind of annoyed me, it was worse than in other volumes of the series. All in all I was rather disappointed by the book. I had high hopes for it because I enjoyed the last volume very much but this one just didn't grab me. (I received a free digital copy via Netgalley/the publisher. Thanks for the opportunity!)