Skip to main content

Rita Mae Brown

Biography

Rita Mae Brown

Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of the Sneaky Pie Brown series; the Sister Jane series; the Runnymede novels, including SIX OF ONE and CAKEWALK; A NOSE FOR JUSTICE and MURDER UNLEASHED; RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE; IN HER DAY; and many other books. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia, and is a Master of Foxhounds and the huntsman.

Rita Mae Brown

Books by Rita Mae Brown

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Tensions are high between political parties, and no one can agree on anything for long enough to get something done. The bill’s chief detractor is the glamorous Amanda Fields, a former newscaster turned delegate whose flair for the dramatic has earned her a formidable reputation --- and made her more than a few enemies. Amanda’s claws-out approach to politics might have some of her colleagues wishing she was dead, but the statehouse is rocked when one of the young pages who assists the delegates dies under mysterious circumstances. Could his death be related to the political infighting? Or is something even more sinister threatening the lives of Virginia’s finest representatives? 

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Fox hunting season is “Sister” Jane Arnold’s favorite time of year. The Jefferson Hunt Club is organizing a fundraising drive to help with the upkeep of their beloved hunting grounds. But the festive season is interrupted by the appearance of a dead body, tied to a chair and placed directly in the path of an early-season hunt. The intentional placement makes it clear that someone is sending a message. Then, one huntsman’s valuable stamp collection is stolen, and they discover the victim was also a stamp collector. Sister suspects a connection, which is confirmed when just one stamp is found taped to the garage door of her friend and treasurer of the hunt club, Ronnie Haslip. Could Ronnie have been involved in either the murder or the theft, or has he been marked as the next victim?

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

It’s the start of fox-hunting season, and “Sister” Jane Arnold is training a new generation of hounds in eager anticipation of Opening Hunt. But before they make it to that exciting day, several members of the hunt club receive ominous videos in which they appear to be doing scandalous, career-ending deeds. The videos are doctored, but does it matter? The unknown blackmailer promises to publish the clips if they don’t get paid, and even the most upstanding citizen can be brought down by the court of public opinion. While Sister and her friends try to unmask the dastardly mind behind the videos, mysteries abound in their beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain town home.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Although the hunting season is coming to a close, the foxes seem determined to put the members of the Jefferson Hunt Club through their paces. “Sister” Jane Arnold and her friends are enjoying some of the best chases they’ve had all season when the fun is cut short by the theft of Crawford Howard’s treasured Sir Alfred Munnings painting of a woman in hunting attire riding sidesaddle. When another painting goes missing five days later, Sister Jane knows it’s no coincidence. Someone is stealing paintings of foxhunters from foxhunters. But why? Then Delores Buckingham, once a formidable foxhunter, is strangled to death after her own Munnings sidesaddle painting is stolen. Now Sister is not just up against a thief --- she’s on the hunt for a killer.

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Spring arrives in northern Virginia, and the women of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church prepare for a Homecoming celebration like no other. Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen, Susan Tucker and their friends are busy planting flowers and trimming hedges to get the church grounds in shape for the big day. But a note of a menace mars the beautiful spring: The brewery owned by Janice Childs and Mags Nielsen, two members of the gardening committee, gets robbed, with hundreds of dollars in merchandise taken off their delivery trucks. When Jeannie Cordle drops dead at a charity auction, poisoned by a fatal weed, Harry’s worst suspicions are confirmed: a killer lurks in their midst, one with a keen understanding of poisonous plants.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Frigid February air has settled into the bones of the Blue Ridge Mountains, making for a slow foxhunting season, though “Sister” Jane Arnold’s enthusiasm is not so easily deterred. With the winter chill come tweed coats, blazing fireplaces --- and perhaps another to share the warmth with, as the bold hunting scarlets worn by the men in Sister Jane’s hunting club make the hearts of women flutter. Harry Dunbar, a member of the Jefferson Hunt club, is found with his skull cracked at the bottom of the stairs to a local store. There are no telltale signs of foul play --- save for the priceless (and stolen) Erté fox ring in his pocket. Sister and her hounds set out to uncover the truth: Was this simply an accident --- a case of bad luck --- or something much more sinister?

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Fiction, Mystery

A massive nor’easter has hit northern Virginia, where Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen joins groundskeeping efforts at the National Beagle Club at Aldie as the date for its springtime Hounds for Heroes veterans’ benefit approaches. Harry’s fellow volunteers, including her oldest friend, Susan Tucker, comprise a spirited group of hunting enthusiasts, some former service members themselves. But things take a sinister turn when, after a routine tree cleanup along the Club’s hunting trails, retired foreign services officer Jason Holzknect is found dead. Soon enough, another murder in their midst jolts the preparations, convincing Harry that the killer is familiar with the Club --- and must be close by, masked in plain sight.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

As winter deepens over the Blue Ridge Mountains, even the threat of snowstorms cannot derail this year’s Christmas run, not as long as Sister Jane has a say in it. With spirits high and traditions strong, a glorious parade of hunters in full holiday regalia gathers on the grounds of Tattenhall Station. But a blinding blizzard brings an early end to the sport. More disturbing: A horse soon returns without its rider. Gregory Luckham, the president of a powerful energy company pushing for a pipeline through central Virginia, is the missing hunter. A search is organized for what is presumed will be a dead, frozen body. What is discovered, however, chills everyone to the bone --- and points toward murder.

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Fiction, Mystery

With the New Year just around the corner, winter has transformed the cozy Blue Ridge Mountain community of Crozet, Virginia, into a living snow globe. It’s the perfect setting for Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen to build a new work shed designed by her dear friend, local architect Gary Gardner. But the natural serenity is shattered when out of the blue, right in front of Harry and Deputy Cynthia Cooper, Gary is shot to death by a masked motorcyclist. Outraged by the brazen murder, Harry begins to burrow into her friend’s past --- and unearths a pattern of destructive greed reaching far back into Virginia’s post-Revolutionary history. When Harry finds incriminating evidence, the killer strikes again.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Sister Jane Arnold takes a scenic drive up the Blue Ridge Mountains for a board meeting at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting. Brimming with colorful stories and mementos from hunts of yore, the mansion is plunged into mystery when a venerable hunting horn is stolen right out of its case. The only clue, on a left-behind cell phone, is what seems to be a “selfie” video of the horn’s original owner, Wesley Carruthers --- deceased since 1954. Odder still, Wesley’s body was never found. When Sister makes a discovery that may explain his unsolved disappearance, it leads her back to the Jefferson Hunt at midcentury. But as the clues quickly mount, Sister is no longer sure if she’s pursuing a priceless artifact, a thief, Wesley’s killer…or a ghost.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

The clamorous barking of beagles signals the annual rabbit chase through the central Virginia hills. But the last thing the local beaglers and their hounds expect to flush out is a dead body. Disturbingly, it’s the second corpse to turn up, after that of a missing truck driver too disfigured to identify. The deaths seem unrelated --- until Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen picks up a trail of clues dating back to the state’s post-Revolutionary past. The echoes of the Shot Heard Round the World pale in comparison to the dangerous shootout Harry narrowly escapes unscathed. Next time, it may be the killer who gets lucky. But not if Harry’s furry friends Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tucker can help it.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Historical Fiction

The night a riot breaks out at the Capitol Theater movie house, you can bet that the Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia, are nearby. Known locally as Wheezie and Juts, the inimitable, irrepressible, distinctly freethinking sisters and their delightful circle of friends are coming of age in a shifting world --- and are determined to understand their place in it. Across town, the well-to-do Chalfonte siblings are preparing for the upcoming wedding of brother Curtis. But for youngest sister Celeste, the celebration brings about a change she never expected and a lesson about love she’ll not soon forget.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

At any moment, a perfect summer day in Crozet, Virginia might turn stormy and tempestuous, as Harry knows too well when a squall suddenly sweeps in. In a blink, Harry’s pickup nearly collides with a careening red car that then swerves into a ditch. Harry recognizes the dead driver slumped over the vehicle’s steering wheel: Barbara Leader was nurse and confidante to former Virginia governor Sam Holloway. Though Barbara’s death is ruled a heart attack, dissenting opinions abound. A baffling break-in at a local business leads Harry to further suspect that a person with malevolent intent lurks just out of sight: Something evil is afoot.

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Spring has sprung in Crozet, Virginia --- a time for old friends to gather and bid farewell to the doldrums of winter. Harry and her husband, Fair, are enjoying a cozy dinner with some of the town’s leading citizens, including beloved University of Virginia history professor Greg “Ginger” McConnell and several members of UVA’s celebrated 1959 football team. But beneath the cloak of conviviality lurks a sinister specter from the distant past that threatens to put all their lives in jeopardy.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Rita Mae Brown and her feline co-author, Sneaky Pie Brown, return with an all-new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, intrepid kitty sleuths Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and Tee Tucker, the ever-faithful crime-solving corgi. This time around, Harry and her animal friends track a killer whose trail has gone as cold as the weather in December.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Sister Jane and the Jefferson Hunt Club have traveled from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to the Bluegrass State of Kentucky to ride with the members of the Woodford Hounds. After the hunt, Sister Jane and her boyfriend, Gray Lorillard, head to a sumptuous party on a nearby estate that’s interrupted by the discovery of grisly remains. Now Sister and her hounds are on the case, digging up clues to an old murder that links three well-connected Southern families.

by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Rita Mae Brown collaborates with feline co-author Sneaky Pie Brown in a new mystery starring Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen, the curious cat detectives Mrs. Murphy and Pewter, and Tee Tucker, the valiant crime-solving corgi. Halloween arrives early this year to rural central Virginia, when a twisted killer will stop at nothing to protect a multimillion-dollar scheme.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown bounds to the front of the pack with FOX TRACKS, the thrilling new mystery in her beloved foxhunting series featuring the indomitable “Sister” Jane Arnold and, among others, the boisterous company of horses and hounds. Now, as a string of bizarre murders sweeps the East Coast, this unlikely alliance must smoke out a devious killer who may be closer than they first think.

Written by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Mystery, Suspense

It's an election year --- and Sneaky Pie Brown is taking time out of her busy schedule of writing bestselling mysteries to make a run for the big office! As the first feline to hit the White House since Socks Clinton, Sneaky Pie has an animal rights agenda that will keep ears perked and tails wagging all over the country. Also on the campaign trail are a frisky flock of animal friends that Sneaky Pie has plucked to fill her cabinet.

by Rita Mae Brown - Mystery

Harry's beloved ex–post mistress is never idle, dividing her time between raising this year’s bounty of crops; taking care of her veterinarian husband, Fair; indulging her passion for classic cars; and adding further to her reputation as a nosy neighbor. Her animal companions see disaster fast approaching but can do little except try their best to protect their foolishly intrepid human.

by Rita Mae Brown - Fiction, Mystery

Jeep, Mags, Baxter and King are back for another Wild West adventure --- this time to save a community of abandoned Reno houses --- in the bighearted second book of the newest bestselling canine mystery series from Rita Mae Brown.