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Summary
Summary
This fifth installment of Berenson's fast-growing series offers "a delightful mix of two favorites: dogs and mystery" (Harlan Coben, author of "Fade Away"). "And you don't even have to be a dog lover to enjoy them!"--"Nancy Pickard, author of "Twilight".
Author Notes
Laurien Berenson is author of the delightful Melanie Travis canine cozy mystery series, including Jingle Bell Bark and Best in Show . She has a degree in psychology from Vassar College and has been married for almost twenty-five years. She lives in Georgia with her husband, her son, six dogs, and two Welsh ponies.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Standard Poodle owner and special education teacher Melanie Travis becomes her brother's watchdog in her fourth outing (following Hair of the Dog, 1997). The latest entrepreneurial pipe dream of brother Frank involves a partnership with local developer Marcus Rattigan to convert an old general store into a trendy coffee shop in Stamford, Conn. After Rattigan is killed by a falling skylight at the site and Frank becomes the most likely suspect, Melanie, urged on by her garrulous Aunt Peg, again tries her hand at detecting. She learns of Rattigan's acrimonious divorce, his spurned lover and the concerned citizens who are fighting the opening of a coffee shop in their family oriented neighborhood. Melanie thinks all are more likely suspects than her brother and pursues their involvement with Rattigan. Meanwhile, she shows her poodle, Faith, in the animal's first season in the adult class and learns from Aunt Peg of Rattigan's previous involvement in the dog world. Together with Aunt Peg and the student, Melanie sorts out the suspects and identifies the culprit. Throughout the proceedings, readers are given a backstage look at the world of American Kennel Club-sanctioned dog shows. As is her wont, Berenson's writing is as warm and fuzzy as the dogs, a tact that should satisfy fans but is unlikely to extend her readership beyond them. Author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Melanie Travis, special-ed teacher, dog trainer, and amateur sleuth, is anticipating a new teaching post, winning prizes with her poodle, Faith, and settling her son, Davey, into first grade. Then one beautiful Connecticut fall morning, her brother Frank drops by, looking for a big loan for his latest get-rich scheme, an upscale coffeehouse. Melanie won't lend Frank the money, but when Frank's partner is murdered, she investigates, hoping to clear her brother of suspicion. This fifth entry in the series offers fresh, lively writing, a tough mystery, light humor, and insight into the peculiarities of human and canine behavior. Although dogs, including a terrier named after the Thin Man's pooch, are key to the mystery and ambience, Berenson has broadened her series' appeal by steering the plot to environmental issues, wills, and the teaching life. Her deft handling of people, plot, pets, and humor will appeal to fans of series featuring dogs such as those by Carole Lea Benjamin, Susan Conant, and Allana Martin. --John Rowen
School Library Journal Review
YA-Mel Travis knows she has a lot to be thankful for: a new job she really enjoys; her six-year-old son; her potential champion poodle; and her brother, whom she loves. However, Frank always seems to be in some sort of crisis over one of his money-making schemes, and this time it's worse than usual. Now he is also the primary suspect in the murder of Marcus Rattigan, the financial backer for his latest project. After Frank begs her for help, Mel puts her sleuthing talent to work and puts the bite on the distempered murderer. The characters are aptly described and complete with idiosyncrasies. Kate, Mel's teenaged student, comes across strongly with limited but important appearances in the story. Indeed, the solution of the murder has more to do with what she has done or found out than all of Mel's hours of snooping. Connecticut's beautiful autumn environment complements the settings of professional dog shows, private schools, and quiet neighborhoods. This gentle murder mystery, more the solving of a puzzle than a clearing away of blood, will likely appeal to teens who like Susan Conant's mysteries (Doubleday), which also feature dogs.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Frank Turnbull just can't stay out of scrapes. Even though he lives one town away, he only drops in on Melanie Travis, his sister in Greenwich, to ask for money or emergency help. So it figures that when Frank seems to land a big deal, a partnership with deep-pockets Stamford developer Marcus Rattigan, there's trouble ahead. Neglected by the contractors, the partners proposed coffeehouse languishes and begins to collapse; then, after unlovely revelations of Marcus's slick perfidy and a hot-tempered scene between the two ill-matched partners, part of the building itself collapses on Marcus, and the police get more interested in feckless Frank than they ever were in corner-cutting Marcus. Luckily for Frank, Melanie has enough time to take from her son Davey, her software sweetie Sam Driver, and her lovingly described round of dog shows with Faith, her Standard Poodle, to poke into still another case, this one revealing an eager ex-wife heiress, a jilted secretary, a resentful neighbor, a posse of protesting environmentalists, another more lucrative project the coffeehouse was covering for, and Marcus's long-ago sponsorship of a champion Wire Fox Terrier. ``There isn't a puppy in the world that's that important,'' snaps Melanie's Standard-Poodle-training Aunt Peg, who's obviously forgotten the pedigree of Melanie's first four cases (Hair of the Dog, 1997, etc.). Mild entertainment for friends of man's (and woman's) best friend. The interested canines take a lot of grooming, but at least they don't try to solve the mystery.
Library Journal Review
Series sleuth Melanie Travis (A Hair of the Dog, LJ 9/1/97), who enters her standard poodle in dog shows, "rescues" her entrepreneurial brother when police accuse him of murdering his business partner. A heady mix of canine pulchritude and bloody murder. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
