Amazon.com Review
Set in a locale and a culture as rich and satisfying as good Southern cooking, Virginia Lanier's
A Brace of Bloodhounds continues the adventures of JoBeth Sidden. JoBeth's a feisty Southern gal with an attitude, whose devotion to her highly trained and trusted bloodhounds involves her in kidnapping, corruption, drug smuggling, and every ornery law-enforcement puzzle that comes to light in her South Georgia town on the edge of the Okeefenokee Swamp. Lanier's adrenalin-pumping narratives, which began with
The House on Bloodhound Lane and continued in
Death in Bloodhound Red and
Blind Bloodhound Justice, are told by JoBeth, who is alternately pulled and pushed by her loves: her extended family of friends and trainers, and her wonderful and appealing bloodhounds. In this volume, JoBeth seeks answers to a petition from beyond the grave, unearths a child molester, and faces a renegade alligator who threatens her pups. Along the way, we learn the rich details of mantrailing, Southern hospitality, modern moonshining, and--of course--romance. Those who have already made the acquaintance of Lanier's appealing family of characters will enjoy this installment. Newcomers will be thrilled that there are other books in the series. Pour a glass of fresh-made iced tea, kick back, and travel into the heart of this colorful and intriguing world.
--Barbara Schlieper
From School Library Journal
YA. Jo Beth Siddon owns and operates a kennel, raising and training bloodhounds and also using them to find lost persons, criminals, and, sometimes, victims. Calling on her knowledge of the Okefenokee Swamp and its surroundings, the woman and her dogs find an abducted child and the abductor, solve a murder, sniff out a fire bomb, lead a successful drug raid, and kill an alligator attacking puppies. Jo Beth's superhuman accomplishments are balanced with human error, bad habits, and her own unhappy love life. Lanier quickly establishes the characters in spite of the sometimes frenetic pace of the story. Dialogue may take some getting used to by those unfamiliar with Southern culture, but it does not detract from the pleasure of the story. Descriptions of the area's heat and humidity and its beautiful flora and fauna conjure up evocative images. Tying subplots together, Lanier keeps readers' interest from the first words to the last with nonstop action. Her strong female protagonist sets out to make life work and succeeds despite frequent setbacks and hostility from several of the "good ole boys." Teens who enjoy this, the third book in the series, will want to try Lanier's other novels as well as stories by Margaret Maron (her mentor), Sharyn McCrumb, and Carolyn G. Hart, who also specialize in strong female protagonists.?Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
