Mystery Women Authors

Virginia Lanier

Biography

Virginia Rudd Lanier was born in Madison County, Florida on October 28, 1930. She was adopted at two years old and was raised in Clearwater, Florida, which she names as her home town. She married Robert "Hoss" Lanier and the couple reared five sons, moving often, living in several different states. According to her books, Virginia Lanier now lives with her husband on the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp, in Echols County, Georgia.

Read an interview with Virginial Lanier who started writing at 63 years old.

Books

Jo Beth Sidden Mysteries

Blind Bloodhound Justice

Virginia Lanier gets the fourth adventure of her heroine, Jo Beth Sidden, off to a brisk start, and keeps up the pace with her canine trackers all the way to a thrilling conclusion in the murky interior of the Okefenokee Swamp. Jo Beth is a steel magnolia who talks as tough as she is, packs a gun, and saves her softest feelings for man's best friends. In Blind Bloodhound Justice she solves a 30-year-old crime in less time than it takes to train a posse of law enforcement officers in the fine points of handling search and rescue dogs. That process alone is worth the read, but Lanier's fans have a lot more in store for them: another
confrontation with her crazed, abusive ex-husband Bubba, a continuation of her on-again off-again romance with handsome sheriff Hank Cribbs, and the miraculous recovery of a blind-from-birth bloodhound who has a special place in Jo Beth's heart. Lanier's first mystery, Death in Bloodhound Red, was published when she was 63 years old, and it won a passel of awards, including the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony. A southern Georgia resident, she writes so knowledgeably about the Okefenokee that the reader can feel the pull of the quicksand and the sting of the chiggers, and while her heroine is a bit too sharp-tongued and belligerent to be particularly lovable, her
canine characters are totally captivating. --Jane Adams

Published Harper Collins 1998

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Death in Bloodhound Red

Jo Beth Sidden is a bloodhound trainer with a special talent for harrowing search-and-rescue missions, and a bad habit for mouthing off to deputies who refuse to take orders from a woman.She has seen her share of trouble: moonshiners poking guns at her head, crooked cops, and an abusive ex-husband with a terrible temper. Then she's suspected of murder and finds herself treading a quagmire as thick and treacherous as the Okefenokee Swamp. If she can't prove her innocence, she might lose not only the thriving business she loves, but the freedom and independence she's fought for all her life. (From the Publisher)

An Agatha Award Nominated book

Published Harper Collins 1995

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The House on Bloodhound Lane

Jo Beth Sidden is a fiercely independent woman who raises and trains bloodhounds for search-and-rescue missions and to track down escaped prisoners in South Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp. Jo Beth's got her hands full when the local police chief hires her to sniff out a local marijuana grower and a friend asks her to locate a kidnapped man -- even though the FBI is on the case. And when her sociopath of an ex-husband Bubba gets out of prison and begins stalking her, Jo Beth will need to use all her skills --and her bloodhounds --to outwit Bubba, to help the police and to best the FBI. (From the Publisher)

Published Harper Collins 1996

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A Brace of Bloodhounds

Hard-boiled Georgia peach Jo Beth Sidden has a nose for trouble that rivals even the olfactory prowess of her beloved bloodhounds. This latest caper has her trying to dig up the dirt on what may be an insidious crime ring's marijuana field. The problem is, one of her friends has unwittingly become involved in their shady dealings, and it's up to Jo Beth to help her out of the mess. As if all this isn't enough, Bubba, Jo Beth's violent ex, is hounding her again, and Jo Beth knows that if he catches her, there will be hell to pay.

Wading knee-deep through this quagmire of danger and deceit, Jo Beth knows that her only hope lies not with the snub-nosed .32 revolver in her hand, but with the droopy-eared, drooling hounds at her feet. Man's best friend is working for a woman now, and with the bloodhounds on the hunt, it's a frantic chase at breakneck speed down a convoluted trail of clues that takes readers through the steaming swamps of the Okefenokee and holds them spellbound until the final bone-chilling finish. (From the Publisher)

Published Harper Collins 1998

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Web site address

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Other sites for Virginia Lanier

The official Virginia Lanier Mystery Page

Page created by Leone Moffat

Last updated 03-Mar-2002