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“A rich, atmospheric murder mystery . . . rife with love, scandal . . . redemption, greed and nobility,” raved the San Jose Mercury News about Outfoxed, Rita Mae Brown’s first foxhunting masterpiece. In The Hunt Ball, the latest novel in this popular series, all the ingredients Brown’s readers love are abundantly present: richness of character and landscape, the thrill of the hunt, and the chill of violence. The trouble begins at Custis Hall, an exclusive girls’ school in Virginia show more that has gloried in its good name for nearly two hundred years. At first, the outcry is a mere tempest in a silver teapot–a small group of students protesting the school’s exhibit of antique household objects crafted by slaves–and headmistress Charlotte Norton quells the ruckus easily. But when one of the two hanging corpses ornamenting the students’ Halloween dance turns out to be real–the body of the school’s talented fund-raiser, in fact–Charlotte and the entire community are stunned. Everyone liked Al Perez, or so it seemed, yet his murder was particularly unpleasant. Even “Sister” Jane Arnold, master of the Jefferson Hunt Club, beloved by man and beast, is at a loss, although she knows better than anyone where the bodies are buried in this community of land-grant families and new-money settlers. Aided and abetted by foxes and owls, cats and hounds, Sister picks up a scent that leads her in a most unwelcome direction: straight to the heart of the foxhunting crowd. The chase is on, not only for foxes but also for a deadly human predator. No one has created a fictional paradise more delightful than the rolling hills of Rita Mae Brown’s Virginia countryside, or has more charmingly captured the rituals of the hunt. No one understands human and animal nature more deeply. The Hunt Ball combines a rounded, welcoming world with an edge of unforgettable white-knuckled menace. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This book was read as an audio book. I could not get past the first minute or so! The author should never read her own work, as she has about as much inflection as a person reading the phone book. Therefore, I cannot evaluate the book, just the audio version. Do not waste your time taking it out of the library, or worse, your money buying it.
Sister Arnold may have lauded the closures in England for fox hunting, but I can't help thinking about the suffering it caused a lot of common people.
When a faculty member of the local prep school is murdered, the headmistress and "Sister" Jane Arnold, master of the foxhounds at Virginia's Jefferson Hunt Club, work together to uncover a killer. It seems the slaying may have been politically motivated, as students were demonstrating to call attention to the role of slavery in the school's past. With the annual hunt ball approaching, the 70-something Sister already has plenty on her plate. Does she have time to catch a murderer?
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AlphaKIT: Brown
21 works; 4 members
Author Information
103+ Works 30,814 Members
Rita Mae Brown was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, on November 28, 1944. She received an associate's degree from Broward Junior College in 1965, a B.A. in English and classics from New York University in 1968, a Cinematography Degree from the School of the Visual Arts in 1968, and a Ph.D. in English and political science from the Institute for show more Policy Studies in 1976. She was the writer-in-residence at the Women's Writing Center of Cazenovi College and a visiting instructor teaching fiction writing at the University of Virginia. After publishing two books of poetry, she published her first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle, in 1973. Her works include The Hand that Cradles the Rock, Sudden Death, Venus Envy, Loose Lips, and Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser. She writes the Mrs. Murphy Mystery series and Foxhunting Mysteries series. She also writes screenplays and teleplays including Sweet Surrender, Room to Move, Table Dancing, and The Long Hot Summer. Her work on TV earned several Emmy nominations and she received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Variety Show in 1982 for I Love Liberty. (Bowker Author Biography) Rita Mae Brown is the author of many novels, including "Outfoxed" & "Loose Lips". She & her collaborator, Sneaky Pie Brown, have written eight previous Mrs. Murphy mysteries, most recently "Pawing Through the Past". (Publisher Provided) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Hunt Ball
- Original title
- The Hunt Ball
- Original publication date
- 2005
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 272
- Popularity
- 119,061
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.19)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 13
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 3
