Hounded to Death

by Rita Mae Brown Narrated by Cynthia Darlow

Overview

"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 champion bloodline stuff. But the fun is squelched when immediately after the competition a contestant turns up dead-stripped to the waist and peppered with birdshot. Two weeks later, back in Virginia, a popular veterinarian dies from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Sister refuses to believe that her friend 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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

At the start of bestseller Brown's discursive seventh crime novel starring master of fox hounds "Sister" Jane Arnold (after The Tell-Tale Horse), Sister is busy showing her hounds in the hunting off-season. Then calamity strikes. At the Mid-America Hound Show in Kentucky, an unpopular master is shot dead with "rat shot" (aka bird shot). Back home in Virginia, a member of Sister's Jefferson Hunt Club disappears. When a veterinarian, despondent over her divorce, apparently commits suicide, Sister decides she can no longer leave matters to the police. As usual, a wealth of fox-hunting lore lends interest, but too many incidentals-a conversation about a saint, the furnishings of Sister's house, a prep school commencement-neither further the plot nor illuminate character. Still, series fans should enjoy catching up with old friends among the Virginia fox-hunting gentry. (Sept.)

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Kirkus Reviews

More than foxes are marked for death in and around a central Virginia hunt club. Jane Arnold, 73, better known as Sister, is exhibiting at the Mid-America Hound Show in Kentucky when one of her most promising young American foxhounds is stolen. She immediately suspects the obnoxious Mo Schneider, a wealthy man cordially disliked by just about everyone who knows him. Good news, bad news: Sister finds her hound along with Mo's dead body. On returning to Virginia with her huntsman Shaker Crown and her protegee Tootie-a bright and beautiful prep-school grad who'd rather stay with Sister and work with hounds and horses than head to Princeton-Sister takes an injured horse to Hope Rogers, an equine veterinarian slated to become the next victim. Even after the police label her death a suicide, Sister maintains that Hope would never have killed herself. As Master of Foxhounds, Sister must spend her summer preparing the ground and the hounds for the fall hunt season. Though she tries to unearth clues to explain Hope's death, she's more inclined to give Mo's killer a medal. Fall brings good hunting for both hounds and their determined master. Yet another chatty tale of anthropomorphic pets and the beauties of Virginia hunt country (The Tell-tale Horse, 2007, etc.) with more obvious rewards for animal lovers than mystery lovers.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170557912
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	09/26/2008
Series:	Sister Jane Foxhunting Series , #7
Edition description:	Unabridged

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