I loved Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie mysteries and am now a huge fan of her Sister Jane series too. I can't wait to read the others. Ms. Brown is very gifted at sharing the sense of the rural Virginia setting of these stories. Loved it!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

4+ stars
I always enjoy Rita Mae Brown’s Sister Jane mysteries. This one is another great installment. The local area is being threatened by the development of gas and oil pipelines that are potentially going to be routed through the area. The CEO energy company, Gregory Luckham, looking to do the development is invited to join the Jefferson Hunt for their annual Christmas Hunt by one of the club members. Tensions are high since Gregory has had some heated words with several of the landowners in the area, namely Crawford, who is working to get his land conservation status to thwart the company’s plans.
While out on the hunt, a snowstorm descends the region making the humans and animals have to get back the start point and safety in near white out conditions. Once everyone gets back, its realized that Gregory didn’t make it back on his horse. Once the blizzard has past, law enforcement is out coming the area, but no signs of Gregory are found – either dead or alive.
Jane and her friends start digging into the disappearance to find out what happened to Gregory.
A great mystery with a lot of twists and turns. For those new to the series, be patient and use the list of characters up front as reference. Because of the number of characters and the sometimes difficult to follow hunt scenes, I do rate this a little more difficult a read and therefore only give it 4 stars. Otherwise I do enjoy the characters, the story and the community of Sister Jane’s.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This is another fantastic Sister book. The mystery is not clear at any point during the foxhunt and it comes to a very surprising end. The descriptions of the Hunt and what really happens as the horses follow the fox are very accurate and make for a fun read outside of the mystery. As usual Rita Mae Brown has hit another home run.

animals, American-fox-hunting, murder-investigation, cozy-mystery

Once again we are given an excellent murder mystery along with sentient animals and (for the foxes) bloodless hunting and marvelous horses. Fortunately for the reader, the book is prefaced by a dictionary of relevant terms and a comprehensive descriptive of all relevant characters both humans and animals. It's pretty easy from the opening chapters to see who is the kind of person who would be a target for murder, but from there on it is filled with suspects, twists, and red herrings! Altogether an excellent read whether you are into American fox hunting or not!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. Thank you!

I have read other books by this author but not this series. I loved this book and and the setting . It is a sweet mystery

Enjoyed the fox huning setting and "Sister". I haven't read this series before but will be adding it to my TBR pile. The murder is of someone no one liked so lots of suspects. It was interesting getting views from both the people and the foxes.

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Homeward Hound, part of the Sister Jane series, has a great plot and wonderful characters. You get immersed in the fox hunting world of Virginia with all it's eccentricities and great characters, including the animals. There is a whole section before the story that introduces all the players - I love it! I am a big fan of Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie mysteries, and somehow have missed the Sister Jane stories. Now I have to go explore those books too - so excited to have more Rita Mae Brown to read! Highly recommend this one.

I received Homeward Hound by Rita Mae Brown as an ARC from Netgalley. I have read almost all of Rita Mae Brown's books and my favorites are the Sneaky Pie Series. Homeward Hound is a book from the Sister Jane series which are mysteries set within the foxhunting world in Virginia. I enjoy reading her books because I'm from Virginia and they are set in Virginia. Her books are part of the cosy mystery genre and are all a fun read.

Rita Mae Brown is just GREAT. All of her books teach us something, be it history or fox hunting. Her characters become family.and her animals become ours. Read her books...read them all...you will not be disappointed.

It's a delight to have a new Sister Jane novel, and one that returns to the core of life in rural Virginia, with extreme weather, the delight of foxhunting, and the rhythm of daily life on a farm.

There is a list in the front of the book of all the characters, and you would do well to review it. It lets you know what's happened to who, an easy thing to forget when there is so much time between Sister Jane books. Custis Hall grad Tootie plays a major role in this mystery, along with her mother, newly divorced and renting a dependency locally. There's no updates on the other Custis Hall girls - I don't care about Val, but would have liked a smidge of info on how Felicia is doing.

I do appreciate all the data on the people, the horses, the hounds, the foxes, owls, and many more things.
What I really enjoy about these books is not solving the mystery, but just participating vicariously in country life. The Jefferson Hunt is the central theme of the book, and for those unfamiliar with foxhunting in America, the fox is pursued for the fun of it, and never killed. The foxes go to ground in their dens or an unreachable spot when they tire of being chased, and everyone goes home to play another day.

Yes, the animals talk, but only to each other. They know a lot about what's happening. The Jefferson Hunt lets Ronnie Haislip bring a guest, a good rider who is also head of a company that develops oil and gas pipelines. His current project has tentatively planned routes through several of the most significant estates in the area, and Ronnie hopes that seeing the land from the saddle will help the man understand why it needs to be preserved as it is. One of those whose property is targeted is cranky Crawford, the man with too much money and not enough inclination to play well with others. Crawford has his own solution to this problem.

Someone else has come up with another, making the developer disappear during the hunt while everyone is hustling to get out of a serious blizzard. The man's horse makes it back, but his rider is gone. Dead? Injured somewhere? Or did someone take him prisoner? There are a number of hunt members who know about the man and his plans. Does killing him stop the pipeline?