The Tell-tale Horse

August 6, 2007
Enlivened by a large cast of familiar two- and four-legged characters, “Sister” Jane Arnold's sixth adventure in Virginia hunt country (after 2006's The Hounds and the Fury
) opens with the discovery of a nude female corpse tied to an equine shop fixture. The Jefferson Hunt community is appropriately distressed, but master of foxhounds Sister really gets outraged when a valuable trophy goes missing and then turns up in her stable. Suspects abound among the well-heeled and well-mounted but rather undeveloped members of the hunt. Brown's well-researched descriptions of hunting will please aficionados who don't mind her talking-animal conceit, but otherwise the prose is undistinguished; the “useful terms” section at the back is almost superfluous, though the exhaustive dramatis personae in the front is not. The tale is mostly carried by its unusual setting and a rather cozy plot featuring high-tech and financial wizardry. Author tour.

September 1, 2007
Browns latest in the crowd-pleasing Foxhunting series is cleverly named and just as cleverly and compellingly developed. Seventysomething Sister Jane Arnold is Master of the Foxhounds as well as one of the most entertaining amateur sleuths since those of Agatha Christie. Shes had more than a few romantic flings with the gentlemen in her circle, and dates a retired accountant. She can easily hold her own in most situations, whether deciphering clues to the latest murder or observing events at the Casanova Hunt Ball, where backbiting whispers and barbed comments are barely concealed by southern gentility: Those marvelous earrings set off your silver hair. I still cant believe you havent started to color your tresses, darlin. This time an unidentified nude corpse, dubbed Lady Godiva, is found on Trigger, the life-size horse statue outside the horsey emporium Horse Country, run by Sisters friend Marion, and the hunt is onfor the killer. Brown again proves herself masterful in the newest entry in this charming and engrossing series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)