Sister Jane and the Jefferson Hunt Club are in Kentucky to ride with Woodford Hounds for a hunt. The weather is foul, but the members’ dedication to the hunt doesn’t deter them.

A grand party is help after the hunt, but it is interrupted by the destruction of the grave of an historic horse. When human remains are also found in the grave, it brings up a century-old crime and bad feelings among some of the members. There are connections to the crime from current families through family members of the past.

Sister takes on hunting down the real story of the old crime to solve what really happened. She is assisted by her hounds, horses and other critters that live in and around her farm.

Being the series takes place in the fox hunt world, Virginia and Kentucky in particular, there is a list of terms and definitions provided along with a list of the characters and their descriptions. There were a huge help in making the reading enjoyable. It also was educational about the customs and protocol of the sport.

The various animals are given voices and interaction between themselves, regardless of whether they are dog, cat, fox, horse or bird. A trait Brown also does in her Mrs. Murphy and Sneaky Pie series.

One thing I appreciated was the club's focus on the ride for the chase rather than to kill the foxes. In fact,Sister Jane is an owner who makes sure the foxes are provided for and protects their dens.

An interesting thing, to me, is Rita Mae Brown is a MFH (Master of Foxhounds) as is the lead character. ( )

Murder mystery, horses and fox hunting...perfect together! ( )

I forced myself to keep going but at about 75%, I simply could not slog though this book any further. It was about 5% mystery and the rest comprised blow-by-blow accounts of fox hunting outings. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing, I recommend you avoid this book. ( )

Ok, I'm now caught up on this fabulous fox hunting series by Rita Mae Brown and excited to know I have an ARC of CRAZY LIKE A FOX, coming from LibraryThing to read and review. Her writing is great and you can just imagine riding through the fields and hills of both Virginia and Kentucky, even if you don't ride you can't help but enjoy this and all of her tales. ( )

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie is the ninth book in the series of foxhunting - centered mysteries featuring Master of Foxhounds, Sister Jane Arnold.

When a storm causes a branch to crack the stone covering the grave of a famous foundation stallion, there is a nasty surprise within – besides the horse's skeleton, there are the skeletons of a man and a small dog. In typical murder mystery fashion, more bodies follow.

Sister Jane lives and breathes fox hunting. If you don't know a thing about the sport, you will learn about it here. Without a keen interest you may be overwhelmed – even bored - with the amount of detail. If you're interested in the lifestyles of the very rich hunt aristocracy, you'll find that here, too. You'll also find lovely descriptions of the animals and country.

What you won't find is a very compelling mystery. The motive becomes clear early on and there's no guessing about who the next victim may be and even, ultimately who must be doing the murders.

For me, the strength of Rita Mae Brown's work is that she 'gets the horses right', a rarity in books for adults where an equine makes an appearance. I've read several books from Brown's other series revolving around Mrs Murphy and enjoyed them. This is my first of the Sister Jane novels and, on the strength of her other series and books, I will probably give this series one more try. Even for myself, involved with horses for over fifty years, the foxhunting details overwhelmed the plot on this one. ( )