Full Cry

Informationen zum Autor Rita Mae Brown  is the bestselling author of the Sneaky Pie Brown series; the Sister Jane series;  A Nose for Justice  and  Murder Unleashed; Rubyfruit Jungle; In Her Day;  and  Six of One,  as well as several other novels. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia. Klappentext In the third novel of her captivating foxhunting series, Rita Mae Brown welcomes readers back for a final tour of a world where most business is conducted on horseback-and stables are de rigueur for even the smallest of estates. "A solidly crafted mystery with interesting characters and a nice sense of place. The rolling hills of the Virginia hunt country are beautiful, and all the gentility makes it a perfect place to plop a dead body."-Toronto Globe and Mail Riding horseback, "Sister" Jane Arnold, the regal seventy-two-year-old master of foxhounds of the Jefferson Hunt Club, calmly surveys the peaceful rolling hills of Virginia, unaware that trouble is brewing. At the local train station a derelict is found dead, and a second hapless loner-a long-ago schoolmate of Sister's-soon follows him to the morgue. Coincidence? Sister scents murder. But who among her oldest friends and the charming newcomers would kill two harmless old outcasts? Beyond the brilliance of the winter hunt season, other dramas-of love, greed, ambition, and violence-start to unfold. With a sad heart, Sister chases a killer who has gone to ground. Leseprobe Chapter 1 A bloodred cardinal sparkled against the snow-covered ground. He’d dropped from his perch to snatch a few bits of millet still visible by the red chokeberry shrubs scattered at the edge of the field. The snow base, six inches, obscured most of the seeds that the flaming bird liked to eat, but light winds kept a few delicacies dropping, including some still-succulent chokeberry seeds. Low gunmetal gray clouds, dense as fog in some spots, hung over the fresh white snow. In the center of this lovely thirty-acre hayfield on Orchard Hill Farm stood a lone sentinel, a 130-foot sugar maple. Surrounding the hayfield were forests of hardwoods and pine. Two whitetail deer bolted over the three-board fence. Deer season ran from mid-November to January 2 in this part of Virginia. Those benighted humans who had yet to reach their legal bag limit might be found squatting in the snow on this December 27, a cold Saturday. Bolting across the field in the direction opposite the deer came two sleek foxhounds. At first the cardinal, now joined by his mate, did not notice the hounds. The millet was too tasty. But when the birds heard the ruckus, they raised their crests and fluttered up to the oak branches as the hounds sped by. Before the birds could drop back to their feast, four more hounds raced past, snow whirling up behind their paws like iridescent confetti. In the distance, a hunting horn blew three long blasts, the signal for hounds to return. Jane Arnold, Master of Foxhounds for the Jefferson Hunt Club, checked her advance just inside the forest at the westernmost border of the hayfield. The snowfall increased, huge flakes sticking to the horse’s coat for a moment, to her eyelashes. She felt the cool, moist pat of flakes on her red cheeks. As she exhaled, a stream of breath also came from her mount, a lovely bold thoroughbred, Rickyroo. Behind her, steam rising from their mounts’ hindquarters and flanks, were fifty-four riders. Ahead was the huntsman, Shaker Crown, a wiry man in his middle forties, again lifting the hunting horn to his lips. The bulk of the pack, twenty couple—hounds are always counted in twos or couples—obediently awaited their next order. Sister cast her bright eyes over the treetops. Chickadees, wrens, and one woodpecker peered down at her. No foxes had just charged through here. Different birds had different responses to...

Product details

• Authors: Mae Brown, Rita Mae Brown
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 26.10.2004
• EAN: 9780345465207
• ISBN: 978-0-345-46520-7
• No. of pages: 370
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 175 mm x 25 mm
• Series: "Sister" Jane; Foxhunting Mysteries (Paperbac; "Sister" Jane
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense