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“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-South Hound Show, where foxhounds, bassets, and beagles gather to strut their champion 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.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
September 30, 2008 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780345513298
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780345513298
- File size: 2414 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 28, 2008
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. -
August 1, 2008
Lusty, lively Sister Jane, Master of the Hunt and amateur detective, is back in her sixth book. No one other than Sister is worried when a thoroughly nasty hound breeder is killed, but Sisters suspicions really kick into high gear when the local (and world-renowned) equine vet is found dead in her surgery, with one of Sisters horses. Typical of this series (and the authors Sneaky Pie Brown books), the countryside of central Virginia is as important a character as any of the large cast, and this time that lush landscape is explored by Sister and her fellow hunters as they prepare for the new hunting season. The slower pace of the investigation is offset by the character development and interaction between human, hounds, and horses; clever and snappy dialogue between humans and animals is interspersed with more philosophical discussions on the value of human and animal life. Hounded to Death, a solid and enjoyably entry in this popular series, will be snapped up by fans and draw in new readers.Anyone interested in rural sleuths, animals, Virginia, hunting, orhorses will enjoy the engaging story, its countryside and its characters, all wrapped up in a high-quality modern cozy mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
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