Product Description

Critics and fans alike are wild about Rita Mae Brown’s richly imagined and utterly engaging foxhunting mysteries–and this latest novel promises more thrilling hunts, breathtaking vistas, and an all-new sinister scandal.

Millions of dollars seem to be missing after a long-overdue audit of the local aluminum plant reveals a major accounting discrepancy. Company president Garvey Stokes finds himself at a loss–in more ways than one. He turns to his sharp-tongued, ornery bookkeeper, Iphigenia “Iffy” Demetrios, for an explanation, but she’s no help. Yet when the fuzzy math suddenly includes a body count, the figures can no longer be ignored.

While the town sheriff tries to get to the bottom of the matter, leave it to “Sister” Jane Arnold, venerable master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, to rely on her keen horse-and-hound sense to follow the trail of murder and cover-up. Throwing her off the scent, however, is former hunt club donor and all-around cad Crawford Howard, who thinks he can go toe-to-toe with the beloved septuagenarian and outclass her club by grossly sidestepping hound- and-hunt etiquette. Against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a menagerie of friends, foes, and fresh new faces saddle up for the breakneck ride to unravel the conspiracy. Even the furry denizens in the fields and boroughs have a thing or two to say about these peculiar humans.

Incomparable author Rita Mae Brown returns to the glorious hills of Virginia and its genteel foxhunting society, where how much money you have in the bank is not nearly as important as how long your family has lived on the land–and where nearly everyone has something to hide. As Sister muses, “The little secrets leak out. The big ones, well, some escape like evils from Pandora’s box. And others we’ll never know.”


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165357 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-25
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345465481
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In bestseller Brown's diverting fifth foxhunting mystery (after 2005's The Hunt Ball), "Sister" Jane Arnold, the 73-year-old master of foxhounds at central Virginia's Jefferson Hunt Club, and a host of anthropomorphized dogs, horses, foxes and birds have their work cut out for them. As Sister prepares for the winter hunt, arrogant arriviste Crawford Howard acquires an "outlaw" pack of hounds and proceeds to set up a rival event on land long used by the Jefferson Hunt, a plan that threatens to tear the community apart. "People are like teabags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water," notes Sister, who with her usual panache sorts out a murder, an attempted murder, an insurance scam and a huge sum of money gone missing from a local company. Cozy fans and animal lovers will be charmed, but the general reader may lose patience with the talking critters. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
As post-Christmas snow falls, "Sister Jane" Arnold, master of hounds of Jefferson Hunt Club, fears Crawford Howard will withdraw his support--25 percent of the annual budget--of the club. Howard's bought his own potentially dangerous "outlaw pack," whose destructiveness, should some hounds break loose, will likely be blamed on the club. Sure enough, some of Howard's hounds break loose. Also, "interest rates are rising; the Dow is falling, [and] the banks are nervous," which spells "a-u-d-i-t," which reveals $2 million in fake invoices. Add a shooting to the mix and plenty of seamlessly integrated horse-and-hounds facts for another enjoyable Brown mystery. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Praise for Rita Mae Brown

The Hunt Ball

“The hunt must go on, its grace and glory personified by the foxes, hounds and horses that provide these thrilling scenes with their on-the-ground perspective.”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Score another triumph for [Rita Mae] Brown–and for ‘Sister,’ who helps run another two-legged predator to ground.”
–Richmond Times-Dispatch

Full Cry

“A great ride with heroine ‘Sister’ Jane Arnold.”
–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A quality tale that is over all too soon.”
–Charleston Post and Courier


Hotspur

“Dashing and vibrant . . . The reader will romp through the book like a hunter on a thoroughbred, never stopping for a meal or a night’s sleep.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brown combines her strengths–exploring southern families, manners, and rituals as well as the human-animal bond–to bring in a winner.”
–Booklist

Outfoxed

“A rich, atmospheric murder mystery . . . rife with love, scandal, anger, transgression, redemption, greed, and nobility, all of which make good reading.”
–San Jose Mercury News

“Compelling . . . engaging . . . [a] sly whodunit [with] a surprise finish.”
–People


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Back in the Saddle with this one!
In the fifth entry of the Outfoxed series, Sister Jane Arnold and her friends ride out with their hounds while dealing with the ramifications of the disasterous culmination of the Hunt Ball as detailed in the previous book of that name. Crawford Howard has withdrawn his financial support from the Jefferson Hunt, and another affluent member, Dr. Jason Woods, can't seem to decide whether to follow. The mystery involving possible financial wrong-doing at a local factory takes a while to develop and then takes a back seat to the foxhunts and all the work that makes them possible, but the details are fascinating and, of course, the observations of all the animals are worth the read by themselves.

If you follow both the Mrs. Murphy and Sister Jane series of mystery novels written by Ms. Brown, you may have noticed that what one can only assume are the author's personal opinions about everything from the quality of various makes of automobiles to the advisability of purchasing various brands of boots have been creeping into the stories. That's fine, as long as those details don't overwhelm the story line, and in the last two Mrs. Murphy mysteries, I felt that they had -- I don't remember "who dunnit" but I do recall a several-page exploration of automotive engine technology, which, while mildly interesting, clearly distracted from the story rather than enhanced it. In this book, however, politics are mostly balanced out by event development, although the events may be more about the Hunt than the mystery itself.

I found myself a bit puzzled by a lack of leading articles in dialogue -- statements that would normally begin with "a," "an" or "the" had those words left off. It might ring true for someone from the region, but I couldn't "hear" it and found it a bit disrupting. The dialogue between close friends sometimes "skipped around" a bit, too -- while one can easily see how folks that know one another well would talk in shorthand like that, I don't know these people well enough to follow their conversation all the time.

However, the comments from the animals are spot on, and my own dogs listened intently while I read some of the hunting sequences to them (although, being Poodles, they opined that the foxhunt sounded like rather a lot of work, and why not just head straight to the tailgate potluck?)

A foxhunter herself, Ms. Brown is obviously using these books to present her case in favor of the sport, and I find her arguments to be compelling ones. Actually, I'd be in favor of scrapping the "mystery" element to the books completely, just to read about the traditions and day-to-day activities of the foxhunters! Sure makes me wish I'd kept up those riding lessons waybackwhen....

Cons: Not so much of a mystery, really
Pros: Engaging characters -- especially the animals -- and fascinating exploration of foxhunting.

Getting back to the basics
Being an avid fan of Rita Mae Brown...and Sister Jane....I preordered this book and waited with baited breath until it arrived. I couldn't wait to find out what happened with Crawford. The book basically was good except I wish she had concentrated less on the crime and more on the issue of Crawford Howard and his antics. I think a whole book could have been done about that (and maybe that's forthcoming) because the mystery parts are shallow and have nothing to do with foxhunting. I love the foxhunting parts and her descriptions of the hunt are great....however I feel that a good line could have been how Crawford's hounds felt about hunting for him (I did see the one or two lines of how they felt, however I think dialog between them and the Jefferson hounds could have been good). Also, Marty, being such a close friends of Sister Jane's was sort of forgotten in this book. I am looking forward to Shaker's expanding romance with Lorraine and also the interaction of Ben and Margaret. I always enjoy these books. I read them many times over. I look forward to the next one to see where she takes these story lines.

More mystery, less spin, please
I was really looking forward to this book--I've read RMB since Rubyfruit Jungle and I love mysteries--but my anticipation came to a screeching halt on page 4, where Ms. Brown produced this piece of pandering: "The whole point of the ban [on English foxhunting] was to punish those suspected of wealth or title from (sic) enjoying themselves... It was perfectly fine with [those who passed the ban] if the farmers shot the beautiful creatures... Better yet, Americans did not hunt to kill the fox."

No. It isn't all about the seedy underclasses hating the wealthy (though given the centuries of class privilege in England, it might be understandable if that were the case). It's not to punish those with wealth or title for enjoying themselves... though I'm sure those with wealth and titles were equally annoyed when droit du seigneur was abolished.

The whole point of that ban was to put an end to the bloody and horrible way in which English hunts conclude--the painful, terrifying death of the fox. You see, I'm one of those ignorant Yankees who signed one of the many petitions to Parliament to try to bring an end to the bloody business of British-style foxhunting. I don't recall the English foxhunters ever offering to compromise--to merely hunt the fox, and not allow the dogs to tear it to pieces when it's cornered. It's one thing to shoot an animal that's endangering one's poultry--at least it's quick and relatively merciful. A British fox-hunt is anything but.

Ms. Brown tosses off the very important difference between US and English hunts as though the death of the fox, and the manner of its death, does not matter. It matters to me--as I am sure it matters to the fox. The English hunt begins early, with gamekeepers going around to where the foxes live and stopping their dens--blocking their means of escape. Not very "sporting!" - but if the fox were allowed to escape, the ladies and gentlemen of the hunt would be denied the pleasure of the kill, and that would be such a disappointment!

Let's look at it from the fox's point of view, as Ms Brown does in her books. What would happen to her beloved foxes--what if Target or Comet were unfortunate enough to live in Merrie England? What about sweet, intelligent little Inky? How would the story go...

"Panting, exhausted, Inky dashed through the creek, backtracked to muddle her trail. She ran along a fallen log, cut through a thicket, and dove for her escape hole. It was blocked by a stone, too big to move, too deeply wedged to move around. She gasped, whirled--but it was too late. The hounds closed in, snarling. Inky screamed in agony as her hind leg was torn off, but her adrenaline-charged heart was pumping so fast that she bled to death in seconds.

The whipper-in beat off the dogs and pulled out the bleeding stump of what had been her beautiful, luxuriant tail.

He took the still-warm trophy of their victory over to the youngest member of the hunt, an eight-year-old old boy, and smeared Inky's blood across the child's face.

The boy fought back nausea. This was the glory of the hunt--his father, his mother expected him to be a man! So he did his best, and smiled, and wished he were a million miles away."

I used to buy Rita Mae Brown's books in hardcover. When her misplaced modifiers and brand placement got too irritating--her last Sneaky Pie book read like an ifomercial for the Virginia wine industry--I started reading the hardcover at the library and buying the paperback.

At this point... I don't even know if I'm going to finish this book. The disconnect of making her foxes such interesting, lovable people (her animals have always been more interesting than her humans) while kissing up to the savage brutality of English foxhunting is just more hypocrisy than I want to deal with in recreational reading.

I don't care if Ms Brown or anyone else wants to chase foxes till they're blue in the face; I'm sure it's great exercise. But I draw the line at being told what to believe when it comes to humane treatment of animals. It's sheer nonsense to pretend there's no difference between the US and UK style of fox-hunting or wax indignant over how those of us who think British foxhunting is barbaric are trying to punish the poor hunters. I'm sure Ms. Brown's fox-hunting friends were hugging themselves with glee over her polemic on page 4, but it's just lost her a reader.