The House on Bloodhound Lane

Rating:
Summary: Great Woman with an Attitude!
Review: "The House on Bloodhound Lane," the second in the "Bloodhound series," has confirmed it. Virginia Lanier has just zoomed to the top of "My Favorite Mystery Writers'" list!! (Even better than Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, which is saying a LOT!!)

I can't believe that I have just now discovered Virginia Lanier's great characters! Jo Beth Sidden is a feminist with an attitude and such a wonderful character! I love how she is always trying to improve and "fix" her friends' lives (because her own is so often in such chaos)!

I couldn't put this book down. It has SO many intricate sub-plots and I love the dialogue. It is great to read so much about the dogs as well. I especially liked how Lanier took the readers back to Bobby tracking Mary Ann.

Lanier is such a gifted and intelligent writer to devise methodically the reasoning that spews out of Jo Beth's character.

I've already started "tracking" down the hardback editions of Lanier's books. They are keepers. Other mysteries that I've rated as 5 stars are good, but they don't come close to Lanier's Bloodhound Series! She is THAT GOOD!

Rating:
Summary: Good airport read
Review: This book made a three hour airport delay tolerable - something that many books can't do. Jo Beth is back with her nice mix of sass and humor. The kennel is growing but there are a few problems - including a vicious ex-husband on the loose and a missing businessman. Romance is in the air for all the ladies at the kennel - or so it seems.

The highlights of the book are two-fold. First, it's always nice to read a mystery that doesn't have a dead body. Second, and most endearing, is Bobby Lee, the brilliant, blind bloodhound.

Bottom-line: Nothing extraordinary but good enough to pass along to my dog loving niece.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping second of series
Review: This is *NOTE* the second book of a series. It is well done enough that you can pick up the series here but it will be more enjoyable if you start from the beginning. The books are; 1996-Death in Bloodhound Red, 1997-The House on Bloodhound Lane, 1998- A Brace of Bloodhounds, 1999-Blind Bloodhound Justice, 2000-Ten Little Bloodhounds. I'm not sure why we don't have books for 2001 and 2002, but after you read the first book and then run out and buy the next four that continue without dropping the pace and excitement, you'll mourn the gap in the series. I have a review in on the first book that gives you an idea about the series, which I won't repeat.

In this second book Virginia Lanier develops the themes she began in the first book. As I mentioned she does an excellent job of giving you a wealth of knowlege about the south, the Okenofee swamp, and bloodhounds as trackers (not hunters). You learn still more and critically important, she manages to repeat some of the old knowlege such that you don't lose vital bits if you start at the second book, but is still interesting if you read the first one. Instead of boring solliques you get inserts that go with the action that end before you get bored, such as when she is explaining something to someone as opposed to an off the story line that reminds you that you are reading a book. As with the first book, I not only read it till it was done (about 3am on a night I had to get up and go to work at 7am) even though I swore to myself that really truely I was not going to do this like I did with the first one. Then once I read it through I went back and enjoyed a leisury read to pick up the information and the beauty of the story, after I happily reread the first book for the third time.

I've checked out a lot of the information here with a friend that is from Georgia and so far she is 100% on accuracy. Since just because an author makes something sound believable doesnt mean it is, and I'm primary a science fiction reader so I'm always wary. The only difference is my friend knows bloodhound hunting dogs, but no trackers. But she did verify (and I can't remember which book it was in) where a monster gator was climbing a fence to get at the puppies, that while she doesn't know of any examples of them climbing fences, there are many examples of them getting into fenced yards where no one can figure out how they got in.

Additionally in this book the long feared release of her ex-husband from prison happens, and I really enjoyed Jo Beth's revenge on the prison system for not telling her BEFORE. I'm not going to say what happens or if she found out 'in time' because I HATE a review that blows the plot by telling you the entire book like a bookreport. I'm going to let you wonder.