I've gotten used to Rita Mae's slightly precious use of talking animals (after all, she's not the only one!) and I quite like the Harry Hairsteen novels and they are fun to listen to . I got this as a Book on Cd. The bad: I wish (again) that authors would not do their own audiobooks. This is no exception. A good reader could have made this better. Also: ENOUGH with the hunting scenes. While I appreciated learning about the hunt (foxes are not killed and at least in this example, are well fed and cared for), there had to have been 10 full hunting scenes in the book which got repetetive and boring. The ugly: racism some of which is shown to be racism and other of which I'm not sure the author herself is aware. I may be too PC or just sensitive as a person of Arabic descent but certain parts of this book really made me queasy. This is one of the Sister Jane, master of the foxhounds series. I grew up in beautiful foxhunting country back east, and one of the best friends of our local hunt club's first whipper-in was my brother's girlfriend. The master of the hounds was the father of one of my classmates. The place where I grew up is literally one of those tony spots where Dick Cheney'd go to shoot hundreds of game birds and then raise a few million dollars for the GOP.Now that I live with my people (liberal and progressive to the core) in the SF Bay Area, I like to revisit my hometown through the Sister Jane series. She lives that life, and the books have it all completely right. The mysteries are beside the point IMHO, although pleasantly for us repeat readers, the bad guys aren't always one-offs, such that you instantly recognize who is going to die or have done it, as one did so often when a stranger showed up on the crew of Star Trek (or Galaxy Quest). Repeat readers benefit from getting to know the regulars and watching their children come of age. The real reason to read this series is to enjoy RMB's thoughts on the virtues of hard work, a man's or woman's word, the best body conformation and temperament of a good fox hound and horse (by type: thoroughbred, warm blood, quarter horse, and mixes - there aren't any Arabians as I recall), the evils of government intrusion on the noblesse oblige that of course all the good country gentlepersons embody and so on. I'm often startled at how politically conservative RMB seems to be. She's very up-by-your-bootstraps and leave us alone to go about our noble endeavors. The last book had quite a bit of info about whiskey. This book benefits from prodigious research into the history of tobacco and quite rails against government taxation on tobacco and so-called do-gooders interference with an individuals right to smoke tobacco. RMB lives in a tobacco-growing, whiskey-brewing state, and I enjoy her research, even if I don't agree with her politics on the subject. The targeting of children/young folk as consumers of an addictive substance is never mentioned, while additives get a lot of press. Apparently there aren't any cigarettes left that use top tobacco (literally and figurely: like pot, apparently the top leaves of tobacco are the best tasting/most potent). The book posits an underground economy of true tobacco cigarettes that parallels delicious well-brewed moonshine or whiskey, which apparently is now being licensed for production and sale in small batches. It's all very interesting and very south of the Mason-Dixon line. I love it, I really do. The details are right, the info about foxhunting and running a farm and living in gentile country are wonderful. And I really enjoy being reminded, again, why I left there and why I don't go back to visit.
What do You think about Fox Tracks: A Novel (2012)?
Little less mystery than I like in my mysteries but love all the color.
—glala
Excellent as always! I can't wait for another one in the series!
—Mikebb2105
I love Rita Mae Brown books and learned a ton about Fox Hunting!
—racheldoo
Last time I'll be bothering to read a book by Ms. Brown.
—Tanner
