The Tell-tale Horse: A Novel
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Product Description
The hunt is on in this new installment of Rita Mae Brown’s clever and engaging series. Only instead of chasing foxes into their dens, the locals must track down a killer and save the life of one of the most beloved folks in town.
It’s February, prime foxhunting season for the members of Virginia’s Jefferson Hunt Club. The girls at Custis Hall are finishing their last semester before heading off to college, the entrepreneurially shrewd Crawford Howard is still smarting from January’s breech in hound etiquette, and the Casanova Hunt Club is hosting their annual ball. New neighbors bring new friendships, and romance is in the air.
Then a shocking event alarms the community. A woman is found brutally murdered, stripped naked, and meticulously placed atop a horse statue outside a tack shop. The theft of a treasured foxhunting prize inside the store may be linked to the grisly scene, and everyone is on edge.
With few clues to go on, “Sister” Jane Arnold, master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, uses her fine-tuned horse sense to try to solve the mystery of this “Lady Godiva” murder. The septuagenarian still has a strong spring in her step and her wits about her, but that may not be enough. As Sister gets closer to the truth, she could become the killer’s next victim.
But humans aren’t the only ones equipped to sniff out the trail. The local foxes, horses, and hounds have their own theories on the whodunit. If only these peculiar people could just listen to them, they’d see that the killer might be right under their oblivious noses.
Once again, this charming southern community finds itself caught up in a bone-chilling tale of murder and greed. It’s up to everyone, two- and four-legged alike, to band together, beat the bushes, and bring to bay the evil forces that have declared the Jefferson Hunt Club fair game–because foul play is never in season.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
good story, poor editing
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Comment:
Beihg a horse person, I avidly read all of Rita Mae Brown's "sister jane" books. While this story is somewhat engaging, I felt the editing and sentence structure were terrible. Every sentence was full of fragments, strung together by an over abundance of commas. Made for a disjointed read. Here's a sample: "Ilona Merriman, hairnet in place, derby correctly placed on her head - which is to say, straight across the brow -rode up to Sister, reined in Tom Tiger, her handy small Thoroughbred, gave a pregnant pause, and then tattled." Almost every sentence is structured this way. Found it very distracting from the storyline.
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Summary:
What has happened to Rita Mae Brown?
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Comment:
Rita Mae Brown can be a wonderful writer. Unfortunately, in this series, and in the Mrs. Murphy series, of late, she seems to have forgotten her audience. The characters are becoming wooden, and the plots are less involved, while Brown spends pages pontificating on various subjects that are not relevant to the story. Pass on this one unless you are really a die-hard fan.
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Summary:
Disapointing
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Comment:
First off, I love the way Rita Mae Brown writes, she could write a riveting shopping list. I really liked this series when it started, but I've gotten fed up. She weaves in a lot of interesting facts about foxhunting, and wild animals. It's the humans I can't stand. If she describes one more time how these people can spend more on a horse than most people earn in a year, I will be sick. All they care about is their houses, horses, cars, private schools etc. not how they value other people. And making light of infidelity, as if having sex with whoever caught their eye was something to be proud of. Why does she have to throw in how wonderful homosexual love is in every book? I don't care what consenting adults do, but I'm tired of hearing about it. So, between all of the above reasons, plus the fact that wonderful Sister is evidently Superman's sister (never ages, rides like an Olympian and has more men panting after her than Madonna) I'm not reading anymore of this series. It was good while it lasted.
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Summary:
Avid Reader
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Comment:
I have read all the of the titles in the Sister Jame and Mrs. Murphy series by Brown. I am so sorry that both series have gone lame, prease pardon the pun! The plots get less and less while the odd bits of information grow larger. Please don't pad the books with useless info just to make a deadline. Also, correct research is important. The school is Ole Miss (not Ol'Miss) and it is nowhere near the delta as stated in the book. Getting facts correct is not hard to do these days and certainly makes for a better read.
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Summary:
odd characters
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Comment:
I have read or listened to all of this series. The problem with this one seems to be that she brought back characters who had been disposed of in an earlier book. That and there is really no pretense of a murder plot.
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