The Hounds and the Fury: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)In the fifth entry of the Outfoxed series, Sister Jane Arnold and her friends ride out with their hounds while dealing with the ramifications of the disasterous culmination of the Hunt Ball as detailed in the previous book of that name. Crawford Howard has withdrawn his financial support from the Jefferson Hunt, and another affluent member, Dr. Jason Woods, can't seem to decide whether to follow. The mystery involving possible financial wrong-doing at a local factory takes a while to develop and then takes a back seat to the foxhunts and all the work that makes them possible, but the details are fascinating and, of course, the observations of all the animals are worth the read by themselves.
If you follow both the Mrs. Murphy and Sister Jane series of mystery novels written by Ms. Brown, you may have noticed that what one can only assume are the author's personal opinions about everything from the quality of various makes of automobiles to the advisability of purchasing various brands of boots have been creeping into the stories. That's fine, as long as those details don't overwhelm the story line, and in the last two Mrs. Murphy mysteries, I felt that they had -- I don't remember "who dunnit" but I do recall a several-page exploration of automotive engine technology, which, while mildly interesting, clearly distracted from the story rather than enhanced it. In this book, however, politics are mostly balanced out by event development, although the events may be more about the Hunt than the mystery itself.
I found myself a bit puzzled by a lack of leading articles in dialogue -- statements that would normally begin with "a," "an" or "the" had those words left off. It might ring true for someone from the region, but I couldn't "hear" it and found it a bit disrupting. The dialogue between close friends sometimes "skipped around" a bit, too -- while one can easily see how folks that know one another well would talk in shorthand like that, I don't know these people well enough to follow their conversation all the time.
However, the comments from the animals are spot on, and my own dogs listened intently while I read some of the hunting sequences to them (although, being Poodles, they opined that the foxhunt sounded like rather a lot of work, and why not just head straight to the tailgate potluck?)
A foxhunter herself, Ms. Brown is obviously using these books to present her case in favor of the sport, and I find her arguments to be compelling ones. Actually, I'd be in favor of scrapping the "mystery" element to the books completely, just to read about the traditions and day-to-day activities of the foxhunters! Sure makes me wish I'd kept up those riding lessons waybackwhen....
Cons: Not so much of a mystery, really
Pros: Engaging characters -- especially the animals -- and fascinating exploration of foxhunting.

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