Death Mars Sister Jane’s Christmas Fox Hunt

The Christmas Hunt is one of the high points of the central Virginia fox hunting season. Although a blizzard threatens, Sister Jane, the hunt master, is determined to have at least an abbreviated run before the snow starts.

A topic concerning the community is the plan by a major energy company to run a pipeline through the area. As a result the riders are not all happy when Gregory Luckham, president of the energy company is invited to join the hunt. Being Virginia, most people are polite, but one of the land owners whose land lies in the path of the pipeline, is furious about Luckham’s inclusion in the hunt.

The hunt starts well, but the blizzard comes up more quickly than expected. The riders race back to their trailers, but one horse arrives without a rider. Luckham is missing. The search is on, but instead of the missing man, they find another corpse.

I always enjoy Brown’s Sister Jane stories. The area is beautiful, and if you’re a horse lover, the descriptions of horses, dogs and the rides across the area are delightful. The books are filled with quirky humans, such as much married Aunt Daniella who drinks bourbon and has the history of the area down pat, and animals like the horses, dogs, and foxes who converse with each other.

My only reservation about this book is that unless you’re into fox hunting, or just love horses, there are too many descriptions of fox hunts. Detection is done, but it takes second place to the descriptions of the hunting season. Still, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to lovers of horses and mysteries.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.