Change of Scenery

It's a safe bet that, when you pick up a Rita Mae Brown novel, you're going to read a mystery that unfolds in her beloved state of Virginia and involves intelligent dogs, cats, horses or foxes helping their humans save the day.

Brown's latest book features most of those elements -- smart four-legged creatures that talk to each other, and characters as colorful as a Southerner has the right to be. But Brown, a prolific author of more than 40 books, many set in the South, ventures west in "A Nose for Justice," to take on an issue familiar to locals: Nevada water rights.

The book hits store shelves Tuesday, coinciding with Brown's appearance at the Clark County Library . It's her first stop on a nine-city book tour.

"A Nose for Justice" is the debut of Brown's new series featuring King and Baxter, a German shepherd mix and a wirehaired dachshund. The dogs team up to help Baxter's owner, Mags Rogers, solve some mysteries near Reno. Brown is already at work on the second installment.

The state's growth issues and ongoing search to solve its water supply problem inspired Brown to leave her lush Blue Ridge Mountain setting for one a bit more barren and harsh.

"The first time you've seen Nevada, and you're from Virginia, it's a terrible shock," Brown says during a recent telephone interview. "To be out there, to see the barrenness of it, became intriguing. How can people live there? How did they manage to survive?"

The idea for the new series came to Brown during her annual trip to Nevada. For the past 10 years, Brown, an avid fox hunter back home, has hunted coyote with the Red Rock Hounds club just outside Reno. And no, they don't kill during their hunts, she says.

While driving on Red Rock Road one day, she saw cattle drinking from a creek.

"I had to get out and look at it," Brown says. "I asked my hostess, 'Who owns the water?' And she said, 'That's an interesting issue.' None of this exists in the East."

In the next Baxter and King book, Brown takes on Las Vegas, the housing crisis and squatters, even though she has never spent any significant time in the valley. And she won't get a chance to see the town during this trip, either, as she's back on a plane and on to the next city.

This new series doesn't mean Brown is done with her Sneaky Pie mysteries. She adds a 20th title this spring.

As a writer, Brown has enjoyed two complete literary careers, one as a popular mystery author and the other as the mother of modern lesbian literature. Her 1973 novel, "Rubyfruit Jungle," broke publishing barriers for future lesbian writers. In subsequent titles, she continued to mine her Yankee/Southern family background for material, writing best-sellers such as "Six of One" and "Bingo."

A lifelong animal lover, Brown started writing mysteries involving animals as a way to explore the human-pet bond.

"Though I had a tremendously literary background, I started thinking about where people are in their daily lives. Where does their sustenance come from?" Brown says. "I thought it really comes from an animal, a creature that loves them unconditionally. I thought, 'I wonder if I can capture this in some fashion?' "

Apparently, she did. To date, her mysteries have sold more than 4 million copies.

By writing these mysteries, Brown says she risked losing some of her literary credibility. In the end, it was worth it.

"I knew by doing this, I would demote myself," Brown says. "But the longer I do this, I see that the people who come up to me at signings are touched more, in a way, than a literary work would touch them. "

Brown's talk at the library starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday. A book signing and reception will follow.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.