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HOUNDED TO DEATH, by Rita Mae Brown.
Cover copy: From New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown comes the latest novel in her enthralling series of foxhunting mysteries. Richly imagine and utterly engaging, HOUNDED TO DEATH reveals the cut-throat world of competitive hound shows as both human and animals alike try to solve a series of bizarre deaths.
"Sister" Jane Arnold, esteemed master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, has traveled to Kentucky for one of the biggest events of the season: the Mid-America Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to strut their championship bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when, immediately after the competition, one of the contestants, Mo Schneider, turns up dead - facedown, stripped to the waist, and peppered with birdshot. Universally detested by his peers, Mo had no shortage of enemies, making the list of suspects as long as the line for homemade pecan pie at a church bake sale.
Two weeks later, back in Virginia, Sister is rocked when her friend the popular veterinarian Hope Rogers dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sister refuses to believe that Hope killed herself and vows to sniff out the truth. But before she can make real headway, a wealthy pet food manufacturer vanishes during the granddaddy of all canine exhibitions, the Virginia Hound Show.
Ever reliant on her "horse sense," Sister can't help but connect the three incidents. And what she uncovers will make her blood run colder than the bodies that keep turning up in unexpected places.
Thrilling adventures with horses and hounds, breathtaking vistas, furry friends, familiar faces - including Shaker Crown and the girls from Custis Hall - Rita Mae Brown weaves all these elements into a dazzling novel of suspense.
Gender of detective: female
This is the sort of book that includes a list of characters before the story starts. Unusual, but not unheard of. But this is also the sort of story that includes a list of hunting terms before the story starts. Oh dear, I thought, I'll have to refer back and forth. Except then, as I read, all hunting terms were defined in-text. So what was with the list of hunting terms?
It comes across as a symptom of what the book is like. The characters seem to believe there's something inherent better, inherently more moral about liking and understanding hounds and horse*. On its own, eh. But there's also political soapboxing (worrying about discrimination when there are starving people in the world is selfish, see), and if that's not enough, the animals talk. But you can only sometimes understand them, if you are wise in the ways of hounds and horse, and the moon is full, and the author needs a plot device. Just to top things off, after the author spends the entire book telling us how intelligent "Sister" is, she only solves the murders because she literally stumbles across another one in progress. Not an impressive showing, that.
Overall, another series that failed to impress me nearly as much as the cover copy thought I should be. Bah.
*Ironically, I've encountered this attitude before in fiction - there's a certain kind of Regency romance wherein the heroine adores horses and doesn't understand anyone who doesn't.
Cover copy: From New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown comes the latest novel in her enthralling series of foxhunting mysteries. Richly imagine and utterly engaging, HOUNDED TO DEATH reveals the cut-throat world of competitive hound shows as both human and animals alike try to solve a series of bizarre deaths.
"Sister" Jane Arnold, esteemed master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, has traveled to Kentucky for one of the biggest events of the season: the Mid-America Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to strut their championship bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when, immediately after the competition, one of the contestants, Mo Schneider, turns up dead - facedown, stripped to the waist, and peppered with birdshot. Universally detested by his peers, Mo had no shortage of enemies, making the list of suspects as long as the line for homemade pecan pie at a church bake sale.
Two weeks later, back in Virginia, Sister is rocked when her friend the popular veterinarian Hope Rogers dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sister refuses to believe that Hope killed herself and vows to sniff out the truth. But before she can make real headway, a wealthy pet food manufacturer vanishes during the granddaddy of all canine exhibitions, the Virginia Hound Show.
Ever reliant on her "horse sense," Sister can't help but connect the three incidents. And what she uncovers will make her blood run colder than the bodies that keep turning up in unexpected places.
Thrilling adventures with horses and hounds, breathtaking vistas, furry friends, familiar faces - including Shaker Crown and the girls from Custis Hall - Rita Mae Brown weaves all these elements into a dazzling novel of suspense.
Gender of detective: female
This is the sort of book that includes a list of characters before the story starts. Unusual, but not unheard of. But this is also the sort of story that includes a list of hunting terms before the story starts. Oh dear, I thought, I'll have to refer back and forth. Except then, as I read, all hunting terms were defined in-text. So what was with the list of hunting terms?
It comes across as a symptom of what the book is like. The characters seem to believe there's something inherent better, inherently more moral about liking and understanding hounds and horse*. On its own, eh. But there's also political soapboxing (worrying about discrimination when there are starving people in the world is selfish, see), and if that's not enough, the animals talk. But you can only sometimes understand them, if you are wise in the ways of hounds and horse, and the moon is full, and the author needs a plot device. Just to top things off, after the author spends the entire book telling us how intelligent "Sister" is, she only solves the murders because she literally stumbles across another one in progress. Not an impressive showing, that.
Overall, another series that failed to impress me nearly as much as the cover copy thought I should be. Bah.
*Ironically, I've encountered this attitude before in fiction - there's a certain kind of Regency romance wherein the heroine adores horses and doesn't understand anyone who doesn't.