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The Hounds and the Fury [Audio CD]

Rita Mae Brown (Author, Narrator)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 2006
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.”
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Audio CD
  • Publisher: Recorded Books (September 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1419397265
  • ISBN-13: 978-1419397264
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,193,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of the Sister Jane novels-Outfoxed, Hotspur, Full Cry, The Hunt Ball, The Hounds and the Fury, The Tell-Tale Horse, and Hounded to Death-as well as the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries and Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, and The Sand Castle, among many others. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia.

 

Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Back in the Saddle with this one!, October 20, 2006
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.




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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Getting back to the basics, November 1, 2006
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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.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Condescending Huntress - the Egoist has landed, January 23, 2007
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I was very disappointed in the changes in the main character, "Sister", from a 73 year-old honorable, respectful environmentalist and 'sage'/protector of her community, to a somewhat self-centered younger woman searching for the right mate.

Ms. Brown's Sneaky Pie and fox hunting mysteries have always given me great pleasure until the Hounds and the Fury. I had the very strong sensation that Ms. Brown used three-fourths of this book to expound on fox hunting and her rise to Master of Fox Hounds in her private life. 'Tooting her own horn' so to speak. If I could get my money back, I would.

I hope that this is not a trend and that Ms. Brown returns to her previous writing style re: "Sister" and her world; if not, I will not be buying anymore of this series. If Sneaky Pie's mysteries change radically, as well, I will not buy more of them.
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