Рита Браун: Hounded To Death

It wasn’t until she left the hospital with Betty that Sister let the tears roll. Betty held her.

“Looks like you’re a grandmother.” Betty held her tightly and patted her shoulder.

“What a miracle life is.” Sister hugged Betty back.

Betty agreed, then added, “If the ambulance hadn’t come in time, we’d have had to deliver that miracle.”

“Piece of cake.” Sister snapped her fingers. “Just a bigger puppy, that’s all.”

The two dear friends laughed.

Not only is life a miracle, it can be sweet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RITA MAE BROWN is the bestselling author of (among others) Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Outfoxed, and a memoir, Rita Will. She also collaborates with her tiger cat, Sneaky Pie, on the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet, she lives in Afton, Virginia. She is master and huntsman of the Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club and is one of the directors of Virginia Hunt Week. She founded the first all-women’s polo club, Blue Ridge Polo, in 1988. She was also Visiting Faculty at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Visit her website at www.ritamaebrown.com.

Books by Rita Mae Brown

with “Sister” Jane Arnold in the Outfoxed series

Outfoxed

Hotspur

Full Cry

The Hunt Ball

The Hounds and the Fury

The Tell-Tale Horse

Books by Rita Mae Brown with Sneaky Pie Brown

Wish You Were Here

Rest in Pieces

Murder at Montecello

Pay Dirt

Murder, She Meowed

Murder on the Prowl

Cat on the Scent

Sneaky Pie’s Cookbook for Mystery Lovers

Pawing Through the Past

Claws and Effects

Catch as Cat Can

The Tail of the Tip-Off

Whisker of Evil

Cat’s Eyewitness

Sour Puss

Puss n’ Cahoots

The Purrfect Murder

Books by Rita Mae Brown

The Hand That Cradles the Rock

Songs to a Handsome Woman

The Plain Brown Rapper

Rubyfruit Jungle

In Her Day

Six of One

Southern Discomfort

Sudden Death

High Hearts

Started from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual

Bingo

Venus Envy

Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War

Riding Shotgun

Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser

Loose Lips

Alma Mater

The Sand Castle

Hounded to Death is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2008 by American Artists, Inc.

Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Lee Gildea, Jr.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of

The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Brown, Rita Mae.

Hounded to death: a novel / Rita Mae Brown.

p. cm.

1. Arnold, Jane (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Fox hunting—Fiction. 3. Dog shows—Fiction. 4. Virginia—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3552.R698H626 2008b 813'.54—dc22 2008026625

www.ballantinebooks.com

eISBN: 978-0-345-51329-8

v3.0