Homeward Hound by Rita Mae Brown

It's winter months but the fox hunts go on.  They come in early, switch days, but they don't give up totally.  When the snow arrives early and turn into a blizzard, they head back home.  The only problem is they are one person short.  There's no sense in trying to find him in a blizzard.  They'll have to wait until the next day...

Ballantine Books and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published tomorrow.

They search for the missing man without much luck.  Finally, the dogs start digging and the humans take over.  They've found a missing man, but it was not the one they were looking for, it's another.

Everyone grieves for the dead man, but they keep searching.  When one of the dogs retrieves a hand, the search turns even more gruesome.  They manage to retrieve both hands and find his boots, but where's his body?

You learn about fox hunting, the dogs and more as you read this story.  The killer was a surprise to me.  Did you figure it out?