Hunt with the Hounds

by Mignon G. Eberhart

At dusk, murder rode with the bright-jacketed huntsmen through woods and fields. Among them was young and pretty Sue Poore, involved with an attractive man whose wife had been mysteriously murdered. Already under suspicion, Sue Poore was ripe for murder--either as victim or killer. Death the grim hunter, closed in for the kill...

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Mignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hunt with the Hounds (1950) by Mignon G. Eberhart is meant to be an edge-of-the-seat romantic suspense story. It's set against the backdrop of the Virginia fox-hunting country (who knew fox-hunting was a thing anywhere but England). It opens with Jed Bailey on trial for his life--accused of murdering his wife in order to be with "the other woman." The other woman is apparently Sue Poore. Credence is given to this supposition when Sue provides the evidence that Jed couldn't have killed Ernestine Bailey...because he was with her, proclaiming his love and telling her that he planned to divorce Ernestine. And later--that she had seen him sitting in his car when the shot was fired.

Jed is duly acquitted, but it never occurs to Sue that the police will focus their sights on her as suspect number two. She (along with the faithful Fitz Wilson) spends the rest of the story trying to prove her innocence. The police have decided that if Jed didn't do it, then she must have--especially when she is present at the scene of a second killing. And not even a bullet that scars the wall beside her will convince them that she, too, is in danger from a murderer they would never suspect now.

Eberhart tries very hard to build up suspense and atmosphere in this one. But, for me, it just fell flat and doesn't represent her best work. I have to admit to a bit of bias here--I much prefer her stories with Nurse Sarah Keate and I tend to hold The Mystery of Hunting's End up as the stick by which I measure her mysteries. Hounds isn't even close in its abilities to mystify the reader. And Eberhart's usual fine description and dialogue seem to be missing here. There were sections where, quite honestly, I just didn't follow the conversations. Everybody has an off day here and there--Eberhart definitely spent a few on this particular outing.

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[Brackman1066 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice, intricate plot with an interesting setting, but man the heroine could have used a spine. It was hard to care about such a ninny.

[robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tricky! Nice piece of misdirection, and I quite like the heroine and her swain.

[Anna Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mignon Eberhart was so prolific from 1929-1988 that she was called 'the American Agatha Christie' and was the highest-paid female mystery writer in the US. I'm shocked that I've never encountered her work before- or, if I have, that I have no memory of it! I picked up Hunt with the Hounds at a thrift store and read it in one sitting by the fire on a snowy day. It felt a bit as if Mabel Seeley was writing Phyllis Whitney- a 'had I but known' female protagonist trapped in the cultural norms of a particular place and society. I often struggle with women in this genre, and I did here, too- *all* of them except Aunt Caroline (hooray for Aunt Caroline!) cared more about what young women owed their menfolk and their social circle than themselves. Reading from a modern perspective, it was also notable that black characters were all in service roles, and that no one ever suspected them of murdering the white female victim, despite the belligerent cops looking for someone to pin the blame on. Despite that, the action was fast and complex, and the puzzle reasonably good. I'll look for her other books, but only as short, light reads.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. Very fun premise, I loved that the murder and murder trial had taken place and the guy was acquitted and this was all taking place afterwards. I've never seen that scenario before, it was good to switch it up. I will admit this kept me guessing until the end and I was a little blindsided by the big reveals - SO MANY - at the end. I had no idea who the murderer was but it made perfect sense at the end, it was really stunning.

Only 4 stars because I did feel this book had a lot of pacing issues and a lot of extra fluff.

[Mardi D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the first half of the book a bit tough to slog through. The end to the puzzle was not quite what I expected and I did not really figure out the bad guy on my own. This is one I would rate at 7 out of 10 stars. I don't like the 5 star system because it isn't precise enough. I will give this one 4 stars since the 5 star system stinks.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather like this author. Read her Susan Dare mystery book. This one is good, also. There is a murder trial, and the main witness for the defense swears she saw the killer in his car out in front of the house at the time the murder was committed, even tho the victim says he shot her and all the evidence points that way. The killer is cleared. He thinks she must be in love with him and keeps saying they're engaged, etc. which she denies. She finally convinces him she does not love him and has no intention of marrying him. Then strange accidents start to befall her. A shot barely misses her as she stands on the front porch. Someone apparently thinks she knows something about the killing. A good friend is in love with her and wants to marry her; she finally realizes she is in love with him - not the defendant (whom she never thought she was in love with, just flattered at his attention). He tries to help her solve the mystery, even though she is the next obvious suspect as murderer. A state policeman wants to arrest her immediately and arraign her for the murder, but the local sheriff (an old friend of the family) tries to stall him. Then she discovers the beloved doctor has been killed. Her brother has heard someone talking to him shortly before he is killed, but not loudly enough to recognize the voice of the killer. After several narrow escapes from death, and going over and over the evidence with friends who are just now admitting to some things they knew about the murdered woman [she was definitely NOT a nice person, although neither was her killer], certain things begin to fall into place.