It's good to have a Sister Jane novel that returns to the roots of the earlier books, emphasizing foxhunting instead of other issues.
For those new to the Sister Jane series, Sister is a 72-year-old Master of Foxhounds for a Virginia hunt club, the Jefferson Hunt. A stickler for correctness, she strives to carry the torch of hunt history as well as breed good hounds for the pack and show good sport for the hunt members.
The animals in these books talk, but not to the humans. They often talk about them, and help carry the story forward. There are a number of foxes who delight in leading the hounds on wild chases, laying scent that confuses and slows them down, and when the hounds catch up, they find a fox secure in his den, or in the case of one gray fox, lying safely on a tree limb.
An old hunting horn made of actual cowhorn is stolen from a museum, and the perpetrator has the nerve to use a forgotten i-phone to make a quick video of himself with the horn. He leaves no significant evidence except the video, and his face is a familiar and handsome one.
The baffling detail is that the man who bore that face has been missing since 1954.
The handsome man begins to make occasional appearances, helping a young whipper-in who is confronted by an armed potgrower, who's just shot a hound with birdshot and acts threatening to the young woman who is trying to protect it. The handsome man rebukes the gunman, disarms him, and knocks him out with his own gun. He escorts Tootie, the whipper-in, with the injured hound across her horse's saddle, to a safe place where she can get help for the hound and relieve the worries of the hunters, who have heard the gunfire.
If you've read other Sister Jane books, you'll recognize Tootie as one of the Foxhall girls, now a young woman, who decided to leave her studies at Princeton and live with Sister, working as a whipper-in for the pack to earn her keep. Tootie's parents are wealthy and in the process of divorcing after an internet video reveals her dad to have been unfaithful to his wife. Her mother moves to Virginia to be close to her daughter and try to rebuild a relationship that never really existed. In the process she learns why her daughter has always felt so at home in the Virginia foxhunting world, and why she is loved by so many others.
Meanwhile Tootie is enthralled with the handsome man who saved her and the hound. At the end of each hunt, when huntsman Shaker Crown blows his horn to declare the hunt over, there is a distant horn that seems to be an echo of his own. A 94-year-old woman sees the handsome man and recognizes that he looks just like a man she loved many years ago...except that this man never grew old as she did.
The handsome man is seeking justice, and information to solve an old crime. He has to get two brothers, who haven't spoken to one another in over 50 years, to share the story that only they know.
Another man who's been an enemy to Sister in the past begins to rehabilitate himself and rebuild friendship with the hunt. Crawford had abandoned the Jefferson Hunt to start his own outlaw pack, not following the traditional rules of hunting, and not being a good man. He has more money than sense. Yet he finally agrees to a joint meet with the Jefferson Hunt with his own pack, and Sister is working to legitimize his pack's status as a "farmer pack," which has different rules and expectations of behavior. You'll recall Crawford as the man who caused chaos at the Hunt Ball when he turned the hounds loose inside the banquet room, causing the ruin of dinner and making a lot of enemies very quickly.
There's no update on the doings of the other Foxhall girls, one of whom is married and has a child, and the other who is presumably pursuing her education.
Fox hunting in the United States is not a blood sport, as the goal is to trail the fox to his den or hiding place, not to kill him. It is pageantry, adventurous cross country riding, the thrill of riding a good horse over jumps, and the fellowship of those of like mind.
Best of all, you get to vicariously enjoy galloping through the countryside, taking hounds out for hunts and on walks, and attend several social events. The descriptions of the food are so tempting, it makes you wish that you could get a plateful yourself.

If you want to curl up with a cup of tea or coffee, with an animal curled up near you, this series is always a good bet.
Another wonderful cozy mystery from Rita Mae Brown, just in time for Fall! I love "Sister" Jane Arnold, who calls it like she sees it and is always surrounded by an interesting cast of characters - some regulars who are present from book to book, and some who come in just for a story or two. Several years ago I moved to Northern Virginia , (outside of DC, slightly north of the area where these books are set) and while I always thought Brown's descriptions of the countryside were good, I appreciate them a bit more now!

One constructive comment is that the foreshadowing is getting a bit heavy over the last book or two, and I saw the ending to this coming (more than) a mile away. Since it's a short cozy read anyways, I don't mind too much, but a bit more surprise toward the end wouldn't hurt!

Fox hunting, dogs and mystery and maybe a ghost.. Rita Mae Brown does it again.