Book Review: The Master of Hounds by Joseph Gary Crance

 

The Master of Hounds

by Joseph Gary Crance

This fourth book in the series opens with a family wedding and a display of the uncanny perceptions of the Ernst family. We step into the action not too long after the third book, then fast forward to the boy Mattie, all grown up and going to college. A new character, a young woman named Logan, enters the picture, running with the wrong crowd as she searches for a connection her upbringing lacked. She falls in with a biker gang that means bad news for her, and the Ernst family.

The author deems his work family saga but I felt like this book reminded me of an action film with magical realism, which definitely worked for me. The exceptional powers of characters, human and canine, plays fairly lightly but an important element. Though I’ve only had one dog of my own in my life, the uncanny intelligence of a dog is something that I’m well familiar with and so I can readily accept a canine character that goes just a touch above that. I’ve also always enjoyed an easy sort of acceptance in spirits and spirit guides stepping into a story to offer some perspective.

My favorite parts of the story owe more to the detailed description of nature and the experiences characters have while communing with the countryside of Painted Post – from camping to fishing to simply observing sunrises.  

“Then it happened. The sun poked above the eastern ridge, bathing Painted Post in soft yellow. A flock of starlings, ecstatic at the start of the new day, left the upper limbs of large sycamores and started a twisting murmuration over the growing corn.”

It brought me nostalgic reminders of my youth fishing with my father and listening to hunting stories around the dinner table. Homespun wisdom and nature lore play a large part in this story.

Many old favorite characters return, such as Uncle Arthur and J.P., then there are many familiar from just the last book who play important parts in Matthew’s story.

I have to admit there was a couple too many instances of characters cupping another character’s chin for my taste and some of the jokes are played with a fairly heavy hand, as with Uncle Arthur and a certain lady who is interested in him, and jokes about men running away from a wedding. These minor distractions did not keep me from enjoying the story though.

I’m looking forward to the next book.