This mystery is almost incidental

kw: book reviews, mysteries, fiction, animal fiction

In the past I read a couple of the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries by Rita Mae Brown, in which the cat is an essential element in the solution of the crimes. Homeward Hound is the latest of her Sister Jane series, set in the Virginia horse country, among the fox hunting set.

Ms Brown's rollicking prose carries a story along, no matter the venue. I found it fascinating reading, not so much for the gradual solution to two murders, but as a window into a subculture about which I know next to nothing. As it happens, the author is a Master of Fox Hounds (MFH designation, something I didn't know is a "thing"). I suspect a number of her friends find themselves limned in the story, only thinly disguised.

Reading of the fox-and-hounds set, to a surprising level of detail, added to my understanding that, whatever formal religion folks may belong to, most have a real "church" that some might call a hobby. So these riders' dedication to the hunt is their actual religion, as is the desert-scanning and mineral/agate-gathering of many rockhounds and the finely-honed model-building of model railroad enthusiasts.

In a Sneaky Pie story, the cat does some of the talking, but only to other cats and dogs, who also talk. In a Sister Jane story, cats, dogs, foxes, and owls get into the act. It seems they can all understand one another's "speech", and also what the humans are saying, but no human knows what the animals are "saying". However, the animals don't do much to solve the crime. Sister Jane does most of that. The animal chatter seems to serve more as a series of asides that help the reader gather background information before Sister Jane becomes aware of it. For example, the primary murder in this volume occurs during a snowed-out fox hunt, when a rider is pulled off his horse and killed, but only the horse notices…and "talks" about it with another horse later on.

The story gets pretty complex, with many characters (about twice as many as most writers would employ, just of the human kind, let alone a couple dozen animals). There are a couple of love stories going on. The tying-up-the-knots scene at the ends ties up a few knots nobody knew were in the works. To me, it detracted a bit. But all in all, quite an enjoyable read.