Nine Lives to Die

Рита Мэй Браун (Rita Mae Brown)

Nine Lives to Die is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by American Artists, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

BANTAM BOOKS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Michael Gellatly

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Rita Mae.

Nine lives to die : a Mrs. Murphy mystery / Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown; illustrated by Michael Gellatly. pages cm

ISBN 978-0-345-53050-9

eBook ISBN 978-0-345-53974-8

1. Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Women detectives—Virginia—Fiction. 4. Women cat owners—Fiction. I. Gellatly, Michael, illustrator. II. Title.

PS3552.R698N57 2014

813’.54—dc23 2014000989

www.bantamdell.com

Jacket design: Beverly Leung

Jacket illustrations: © Shutterstock/Nebojsa S (cat), © Shutterstock/Alhovik (claws marks)

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