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THE HOUSE ON BLOODHOUND LANE by Virginia Lanier

THE HOUSE ON BLOODHOUND LANE

by Virginia Lanier

Pub Date: July 1st, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-101088-X
Publisher: HarperCollins

As if turning 30 isn't traumatic enough, feisty Jo Beth Sidden of Basla City, Georgia, has invested the $70,000 she inherited from her father into the business of putting 57 bloodhounds through six months of rigorous training. Six of those well-prepared hounds will go to work for law-enforcement masters. Meanwhile, Jo Beth has enough on her plate for a veritable smorgasbord during the nine eventful days of this serial-like novel. First and worst, her brutal wife-beating ex-husband Bubba has been released from prison. She was in the hospital for six months after his last rampage, which is why Jo Beth has security gates around her compound. Next, she helps her friend Sheri find a buried treasure of $100,000, left by Sheri's would-be father-in-law. And in between the pieces of Jo Beth's tell-all first-person narration there's the story of a man who's been kidnapped by his three sons and stuffed into a large container. You can figure that Jo Beth and her very talented if blind hound Bobby Lee will sniff out that man. She'll also rescue Mary Ann, a young woman who's been kidnapped by religious nutcase Preston Little; persuade a deputy not to grow and sell marijuana; and meet up with Chief Jonathan Webber of the Eppley Police Department, who takes a real shine to Jo Beth—and vice versa. A meandering, episodic second from Lanier (Death in Bloodhound Red, not reviewed), with an amiable Brett Butlerlike narrator and a cliffhanger of an ending.