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From Publishers Weekly
The most appealing characters in Brown's underplotted new mystery are the animals, even without Sneaky Pie's coauthorship. Septuagenarian "Sister" Jane Arnold, the Master of the central Virginia Jefferson Hunt Club, returns from Brown hunt titles like Outfoxed to solve the murder of a local prep school teacher. Not a snob when it comes to class or looks, Sister is a tremendous snob regarding hunt etiquette and respect for animals. And in Brown's fictive world, every fox, hound, horse, dog and bird is given a name, personality, backstory and dialogue. All can converse with each other—and understand the humans—while Sister has the ability to sense what the animals are thinking. The hunt scenes are luminous; the plot is obligatory, if premised on politically inspiring grounds. When a group of students stages a demonstration focused on the unacknowledged role of slaves in the prep school's history, and a beloved staff member is found murdered, things get tense at Custis Hall. But the impending annual hunt ball (scene, of course, of the eventual denouement) provides ample distraction. No foxes were harmed in the writing of this book. (On sale Aug. 30)
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.
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
That this latest offering from Brown is an extended homage to foxhunting with a thin mystery plot tossed in doesn't really matter. Not even the huge cast of characters in the front of the book--a daunting 16 humans and 25 animals--will dissuade fans of the prolific Brown, who has earned the devotions of diverse readers through an entertaining mystery series starring her cat, Sneaky Pie, and numerous mainstream novels, both -historical and contemporary. Her latest in the Jane Arnold series (Outfoxed, 1999) is short on plot but big on fun, with her quirky animal and human characters providing plenty of high jinks. And Virginia native Brown convincingly evokes the beauty of the central part of that state, while imparting interesting facts about its history. This story centers again on Jane "Sister" Arnold, the seventysomething master of foxhounds at the Jefferson Hunt Club. This time the venerable Sister joins with the headmistress of neighboring Custis Hall, the local prep school, to solve the murder of a costumed faculty member found dead following the -Halloween festivities. Brown's passion for foxhunting is evident throughout; fellow bloodsporters will be fine with the minute details of the hunt, but others may be less than entranced. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting read about hunting in America..., Oct 26 2005
By K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Hunt Ball: A Novel (Hardcover)
I had read older books about hunting in England and found it to be a tad distasteful. The thought of a bunch of wealthy and overdressed hoodlums chasing after a fox with dogs trained to kill, and then corner the poor thing and kill it while putting the blood of the fox on the person who brought the fox down like ashes on Catholics on Ash Wednesday...the whole thing struck me as very uncivilized. No wonder Britain was the place where the antivivisectionist movement started!Apparently, this has changed significantly in the U.S. and for the better. There are still going to be people who object to this form of entertainment as stressful for the foxes, but I don't know. Having studied animals for years and seeing that almost all of the mammals have a tendency to play (do things for no reason except entertainment...like otters), I can see where foxes would enjoy a hunt. They apparently ceased to kill the fox and actually help these animals survive during harsh winters and move them if their dens are close to danger. This is a big difference in attitude.
The book is a mystery, but the mystery in this one tends to take the background to the hunt and the history of the hunt. The mystery is interesting in that it involves the stealing of valuable parts of American history in preparatory schools. I get the feeling that this book was written on something that came up in the news down in Virginia or that area. It would be all too easy to create fakes for things like George Washington's epaulettes, and then sale the real thing to the highest bidder (who often is someone out of our country).
I enjoy Rita Mae Brown's books, especially the conversations of the animals about us humans, who could take a few lessons from them. I know Brown is anthromorphizing her animals, but we really cannot say what they are and are not capable of doing. So in the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy Brown's mystery and history.
Karen Sadler
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great visit with Sister and the JHC, Dec 16 2005
By C. Gunther "Library Tech" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Hunt Ball: A Novel (Hardcover)
The Hunt Ball kept me enthralled in the continuing story of Sister and the central Virginia Jefferson Hunt Club. I love the way the animal characters are full participants in the plot development. (Do I detect the influence of Sneaky Pie Brown?) While each novel works independently, I can hardly wait to see how the next book in the series picks up the continuing plot lines and takes off with them. Tally Ho!
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
fine personification mystery, Aug 31 2005
By Harriet Klausner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Hunt Ball: A Novel (Hardcover)
In Virginia, the students led by the "Three Musketeers" protest that their all girls' prep school Custis Hall fails to properly credit slaves for creating some of the crafts on display. Though worthy, nothing really comes of their protest at least that is what everyone involved thought at the time.Everybody associated with Custis Hall seems to like good natured Al Perez. That is everyone except the person who murdered the director of alumnae affairs and fund raising for the school. His corpse hangs next to a "dummy" dead body at the students' Halloween dance. Though stunned by the homicide, Headmistress Charlotte Norton remains calm and keeps everyone else relatively composed.
At about the same time, seventy-two years old "Sister" Jane Arnold, the Master of the Virginia Jefferson Hunt Club, learns of the death. She begins making inquires assisted by her beloved animals but no motive seems to surface. Still Jane assisted by the Three Musketeers and her assortment of foxhounds, horses, foxes, birds, and other "house pets" keeps digging not realizing that someone is watching how close the menagerie gets to the truth
Though Sneaky Pie is not a co-author, the animals have distinct personalities, names and traits and are able to communicate with one another; something the dumb humans except Jane fail to comprehend. The hunt and its related ball are vividly described so that the audience gets a taste of an upper crust event. The who-done-it is cleverly developed but takes a back seat to the antics of the animals (as is the case in most of Ms. Brown's novels). Fans of the author will enjoy watching the humans OUTFOXED by the animals at THE HUNT BALL.
Harriet Klausner
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