by Rita Mae Brown, 2018
I picked this book out from Parkwood Estate’s Library; there were a lot of Rita Mae Brown books. I love the cover. It was disappointing. Her style is very clipped sentences, talking animals (foxes, hounds, horses, cats), and a mystery that never really made sense, even when you find out who did it. But, I did like the setting – Virginia foxhunting land – and I did like some of the characters. I learned a lot, too – foxhunting is a very involved and intricate thing – and they no longer kill the foxes (since the 1970’s). They have scheduled hunts and people fix up their horses and put on their best foxhunting clothing and shoes. They bring all their dogs and horses and let the dogs go until they find a fresh fox scent, and then the chase is on! Over hill and dale until the hounds run the fox into his hole. There is a Master of Fox Hounds, MFH, and in this book, she is Jane Arnold “Sister.” I wish our neighborhood had foxes again. This book made me miss them.
She dedicates the book to: “Dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. James Evert, who taught us at South Side tennis courts and later at Holiday Park tennis courts that it is the Ten Commandments not the Ten suggestions”
It’s strange that it is dedicated to tennis legends in Florida and there is not one reference to tennis in the whole book, and the book is set in Virginia.
I am glad I read the book – it was an interesting cast of characters and setting and subject – foxhunting in Virginia and the people and animals and countryside.