Customer Reviews

Full Cry

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

So who got fired at the publishers for making such a huge mistake with the book's blurb? I assume that shortly after she began writing Rita Mae Brown fell in love with her intended victim and decided to spare him. I fell for the character too and was very glad that she did. Apparently someone at the publishers didn't get the message and wrote up a blurb with the orginial plotline. Oh well.

Now for the book itself. I love the character of Sister Arnold. I love the interplay between her and her pack and the flawed, maddening and fascinating souls in the hunt club but this was NOT the best book in the series. I'd say that honor belongs to Hotspur. I'm happy that Brown managed the trick of making black characters behave like humans and not stereotypes and I'm glad Sister found some love in her life, I'm even gladder that the I wasn't treated to a long love scene. I really didn't want a full blown description of how Janie Arnold gets her groove back but the relationship with her new love interest didn't seem natural. What was it about this man that made him more appealing that all the other men in Sister's life? I never saw it.

Here's what I didn't like: The animals didn't get their due. All of their conversations and scenes were too short.
One major character who we've come to love to hate does not get his comeupance. I felt let down.
The victims weren't interesting. In Outfoxed, the victim is a fascinating individual who almost deserves what happens. In Hotspur you care passionately about Nola and Guy though they've been dead 20 years by the time the story gets going. In Full Cry I didn't care about the victims. They are just "off camera" throw away characters. It was as if Brown was in a hurry and just wanted to get the murder over with.
In both Hotspur and Outfoxed the killer is interesting and in Hotspur, sympathetic. In Full Cry the killer is drab.

I was thrilled by Hotspur and Outfoxed so this half hearted effort was really a disappointment. I hope that Rita Mae Brown will do another Sister book. I want this series to get back on its feet.

With _Full Cry_ Ms Brown has recaptured the feel and intrigue of her first in the series, _Outfoxed_.
However, I will have to say that whomever wrote the editorial review/back flap copy didn't bother to read the book. Sam Lorrilard isn't the murder victim or a Harvard allum, He's a dried out alcaholic horse trainer. The victim isn't stabbed, he's poisoned. Sister doesn't announce her new Joint Master at the New Year's Hunt, it's done at the regular meeting, and nothing is said at all about dishonest goings on in another hunt club. It has nothing to do with the real plot of the book which is about 3 drunks being murdered, and Sister finding herself a beau in the handsom Grey Lorrilard, a black tax lawyer. An intriguing installment in the Jefferson Hunt soap opera. If you like _Outfoxed_ and _Hotspur_ you will enjoy _Full Cry_.

First I have to admit to a Rita Mae Brown bias; I love her work. However, this is just not up to par. The story, not really a mystery, barely a novel, goes off on far too many side excursions with fox hunt stories, hunt clothes, brand names to buy, hoof care for horses, etc. etc. A real yawn if you aren't a "Master" of the hunt.
As usual, Brown manages to work in a few things to annoy everyone (a fact that usually has me chuckling); i.e., animals are superior to people, biracial sexual encounters between senior citizens, her characters opinions on some people just being 'born bad'etc.)
Her editor was asleep a the wheel this time. With about 100 less pages this could have been a good book, As is, Brown's fans will be disappointed. Best advice: If you (like me) MUST read anything she writes, borrow it - don't buy. Save your money for saddle soap.

I am listening to the CD audio version of this book. I am very disappointed. The author is reading her book and she has made several mistakes, garbled words and begun over. I thought errors were edited out. I can hear the pages being turned as she reads and on occasion she seems to running out of breath. Didn't she take a break?, ever? I am on disc 7 and have heard more about foxes, hunting dogs and fox hunt detail than the average person would want to hear in their lifetime. This story needs more plot and less hunting detail.

Dittos on the huge fan of Rita Mae (and Sneaky Pie too!!!). I love this particular series having been in Charlottesville and seen the gorgeousness of all things Foxhunt. RMB is exceptional in her writing of it all, to the point where you can breathe deeply and smell... nay, TASTE the elements of the hunt. A singularly outstanding virtue of this book.

However. (Guilt guilt guilt for saying that negative word!!!) This particular installment is indeed slow to unfold, its resolution seems almost an afterthought at the end, and most of the dialogue throughout this book tends more towards social discourse than the mystery itself. This in turn eliminates any tension, suspense, intrigue, and therefore unfortunately any... mystery? Most of the social discourse seems almost autobiographical, as if this book is more the author's thinly veiled attempt at an all-encompassing monologue on what she has finally come to judge about the world. I am not one to deny anyone this right to free speech; indeed, she is a sympathetic soul. I just don't expect to find it in lieu of a good book, especially compared to the standard of her previous works. Maybe next time.

Who wrote the blurb for this book? I just finished it (A book on tape read by the author) and the blurb has nothing to do with the book. Sam was still alive at the end and there was nothing to do with a neighboring hunt. Oh well. Not one of the best books Rita Mae Brown has authored, but I learned quite a bit about foxhounds and hunting. After I finish one of her books I want to return to Virginia. I'll keep reading.

As a horse and dog lover as well as a big fan of Rita Mae Brown, I enjoyed this book. I have all the Sneaky Pie Brown books and the two preceeding foxhunting novels. I will say I liked it less than the first two in the series, but we all can't bat 100% all the time. The reviewers who didn't like said the author was rather preachy in parts and you could tell this in certain parts of the book, but as I hold some of the same opinions, it didn't bother me. You have to have some flexibility as the dogs, horses, and all the other animals know each other and have conversations with each other. You'd really have to be into dogs, especially foxhounds, and foxhunters to get the fullness of this novel. It's a good read nonetheless.

The first two books in this series (Outfoxed and Hotspur) were great--I couldn't put them down! And God knows I've stayed up way past my bedtime on a work night so I could finish a Mrs. Murphy story. But this one?! Slow cannot begin to describe it! What a big disappointment!

Maybe you have to be not only a mystery lover but a horse person as well, but I LOVE her books. Despite the totally misleading jacket blurb (Sam Lorillard not only doesn't die, he's not a harvard grad and Sister does not make her announcements at the New Years hunt, nor does the story have anything to do with another hunts practices-what is up with this? The publisher went with details from a much revised first draft???), Brown's stories based on the fictional Jefferson Hunt are engaging, fun and full of very likeable and believable characters. I hope this isn't her last in this series!

I am a fan of Rita Mae Brown, but I was very confused when I read the inside cover and then read the book! Who was in charge of writing the inside cover summary. They need to be reassigned, as they did not read the book well, or new glasses. NO joke, there was a LARGE disconnect between the two. The story was a bit heavy with foxhunting and clothing. Please give me a story next time.