Full Cry: A Novel ("Sister" Jane)

I have been a great fan of Rita Mae Brown (and Speaky Pie Brown) for many years. I am enjoying the Foxhunting Mysteries trementously. I love the characters, the plots, the education I am getting on the sport of fox hunting, and Rita Mae Brown's personal philosophy on many subjects. I highly recommend this series, if you like books that are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Full Cry is the third book in the series. I have read all five of the books now available and am anxiously awaiting the next great story about the Jefferson Hunt Club.

Ms. Brown has a wonderful way with words. Once again, I could barely put this book down. All of her characters, especially Sister are very realistic. Sometimes it's easy yo forget that these are fictional characters and not real people. The conversations between the animals is great and makes me realize that I'm not the only one who thinks that animals are alot smarter than most people give them credit for. I can't wait for the next installment in the Jefferson Hunt Club saga.

With _Full Cry_ Ms Brown has recaptured the feel and intrigue of her first in the series, _Outfoxed_. However, I will have to say that whomever wrote the editorial review/back flap copy didn't bother to read the book. Sam Lorrilard isn't the murder victim or a Harvard allum, He's a dried out alcaholic horse trainer. The victim isn't stabbed, he's poisoned. Sister doesn't announce her new Joint Master at the New Year's Hunt, it's done at the regular meeting, and nothing is said at all about dishonest goings on in another hunt club. It has nothing to do with the real plot of the book which is about 3 drunks being murdered, and Sister finding herself a beau in the handsom Grey Lorrilard, a black tax lawyer. An intriguing installment in the Jefferson Hunt soap opera. If you like _Outfoxed_ and _Hotspur_ you will enjoy _Full Cry_.

Maybe you have to be not only a mystery lover but a horse person as well, but I LOVE her books. Despite the totally misleading jacket blurb (Sam Lorillard not only doesn't die, he's not a harvard grad and Sister does not make her announcements at the New Years hunt, nor does the story have anything to do with another hunts practices-what is up with this? The publisher went with details from a much revised first draft???), Brown's stories based on the fictional Jefferson Hunt are engaging, fun and full of very likeable and believable characters. I hope this isn't her last in this series!

I would have loved this book if it were just about foxhunting, one of my passions, but of course Brown writes a great read (and I'm not a mystery fan at all).The misleading CIP flap does the publisher and book no credit though, since the plot is not as written!If only more people could live near the earth and nature as Brown's heroine (and there are some of us out there as well), the world would be a better place.