Read A Bloodhound to Die for Online
Authors: Virginia Lanier
A Bloodhound to Die for (29 page)
“It is rare when a writer can truly transport the reader, and this is just what Virginia Lanier has managed … every time her sleuth, Jo Beth Sidden, a chain-smoking good old girl, took her beloved bloodhounds and me into the swamps of Georgia, I smelled every drop of sweat, felt every mosquito bite.”
Nevada Barr
As her thirtieth birthday looms closer, Jo Beth Sidden doesn’t think her resolution to give up smoking is such a good idea. Especially since she’s in the middle of expanding her bloodhound tracking business, and six law enforcement officers are about to show up for a week-long course, using the dogs she has been training.
Of course, things can only get worse. But Jo Beth won’t let herself panic—until she learns that not only is her violent ex-husband out on parole, but a high-profile kidnapping may be too cold to track. Fearing the worst, Jo Beth is drawn into the rescue attempt of her career. As always, her secret weapon is to depend on the best friend any woman could have: a droopy-eared, drooling, one-year-old, blind-from-birth bloodhound, the only creature smart enough to save her life and the day.
“Exciting and entertaining … You won’t be able to put it down.”
Valdosta Daily Times
When Gilly Ainsley shows up on Jo Beth Sidden’s doorstep, the smart and feisty bloodhound trainer and tracker is stunned by the woman’s bizarre tale of deception and manslaughter. Gilly’s mother wrote a letter before she died, a letter claiming that she would be murdered by the man for whom she kept house—a superior court judge—and Gilly wants Jo Beth to bring the murderer to justice, at last.
Gilly’s mother saw something she shouldn’t have in the wood near the Okefenokee Swamp. Gilly and Jo Beth are in danger, too, and Jo Beth knows that the swamp guards its secrets well. To topple this fat cat judge will take someone who can see inside the criminal mind, train a pack of dogs to hunt out evil, and pursue an enemy until there is nothing left but the sweat of his palms.
“Murder, corruption, mystery, action, friendship, humor, a bit of sorrow, and some splendid dogs … I love these books!”
Mysterious Women
This isn’t the first time that Jo Beth Sidden’s life has gone to the dogs. But the bloodhound trainer-turned-sleuth’s latest case has a trail so cold there isn’t a scent for her trusty canines to trace. Thirty years ago, two baby girls were kidnapped and their nanny murdered. The estate owner’s daughter turned up safe in a nearby church. The other, the gardener’s child, was never found. The man convicted of the two crimes was a vagrant who insisted he was innocent throughout the three decades he served of a life sentence.
Now, he’s being paroled for health reasons, and Sheriff Hank Cribbs is worried his return will stir up bad blood. Turning to his best friend, Jo Beth, Hank asks for help. With her beloved blind bloodhound, the two-year-old Bobby Lee, Jo Beth must sniff out the ghosts of the past and find the truth buried deep in a swamp of cunning deceit and murderous secrets.
“Jo Beth and her dogs are barking up the right tree … Readers … will be amply satisfied.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution
There’s a lot of excitement down at Jo Beth Sidden’s kennel. A full litter of ten baby bloodhounds is due any day. Though pressed for time, Jo Beth still agrees to do a favor for a friend—finding a reclusive, wealthy matriarch’s missing cat. But soon afterward, her client is murdered.
Now, Jo Beth is looking for a killer. There’s a slew of suspects to choose from, too—all potential heirs to the matriarch’s fortune. The quicker Jo Beth can solve this case, the sooner she can get home to her dogs and get her life in order. But she’s in for a surprise, and a fight she’ll never forget.
“An engrossing story set in the wilds of rural Georgia … Characters to care about…I fervently want to know what happens to them next.”
Greensboro News & Record
VIRGINIA LANIER
is the award-winning author of
Ten Little Bloodhounds, Blind Bloodhound Justice, A Brace Of Bloodhounds, The House on Bloodhound Lane, and Death in Bloodhound Red
.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
A BLOODHOUND TO DIE FOR
and VIRGINIA LANIER’S
other award-winning Bloodhound novels
“It is rare when a writer can truly transport the reader, and this is just what Virginia Lanier has managed … Every time her sleuth, Jo Beth Sidden, a chain-smoking good old girl, took her beloved bloodhounds and me into the swamps of Georgia, I smelled every drop of sweat, felt every mosquito bite.”
Nevada Barr
“[A] warmly entertaining concoction.”
Publishers Weekly
“Should satisfy both whodunit fans and dog lovers as well … The pace is smooth and brisk. The author clearly knows and loves bloodhounds well; she also produces believable, three-dimensional sketches of rural South Georgia humans.”
Wilmington Star-News
“Irresistibly appealing … Jo Beth deserves a good scratch behind the ears.”
New York Times Book Review
“Lanier has created a heroine every bit as memorable as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski.”
Florida Times-Union
“Jo Beth and her dogs are barking up the right tree.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
T
EN
L
ITTLE
B
LOODHOUNDS
B
LIND
B
LOODHOUND
J
USTICE
A B
RACE OF
B
LOODHOUNDS
T
HE
H
OUSE ON
B
LOODHOUND
L
ANE
D
EATH IN
B
LOODHOUND
R
ED
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2003 by Virginia Lanier
ISBN: 0-06-109840-X
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JULY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03003-0
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