Everyone thinks their dog is special.
But special enough for someone to commit murder?
Dog show judge Deidre Rogers had enemies, a lot of enemies, and someone hated her enough to kill her.
And it wasn’t only the dog show people who hated her. When a woman’s as rich as Deidre and feels entitled to have whatever she wants, including other women’s husbands, it’s not surprising she had a long list … had a long list of people who would like to see her dead.
When Marty begins to investigate her murder, she finds a trail of people with motives ranging from revenge to greed, not to mention bruised egos.
Don’t miss this cozy mystery page-turner from a USA Today Bestselling Author and Amazon All-Star.
This is the 11th book in the High Desert Cozy Mystery Series.
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Is there such a thing as a perfect murder victim? How about Deidre Rogers? After all, everyone in town who’s come in contact with her either dislikes or hates her. She was trophy wife, filthy rich now by inheriting a fortune from her dead, much older hubby. She’s spoiled, nasty, rude, full of herself, and bribes her way out of citations at the drop of a hat. She’s also an avid dog lover.
Using her fine storytelling skills, Ms. Harman takes us deep into the ins and outs of dog shows, where the dogs are all outrageously pampered and their owners highly neurotic. There’s also a rich cast of characters. From the start, we quickly follow Marty, an appraiser of high-end antiques and art, as she gets involved with Deidre and the world of dog shows. Along the way, we meet Marty’s sister, Laura, a clairvoyant, and Carl, the local antique dealer who dresses up his prized dog, Simone, in fancy clothing. Jeff, Marty’s detective husband, is in and out throughout, lending her support and ending up being the main detective in the murder case. We also are introduced to a couple of dog handlers, a woman scorned by her straying husband, and investors, all of whom definitely have reasons to kill Deidre. IMO, those motivations create a fine set up for a murder mystery and had me steadily turning pages to find out who the killer was. Who did the deed? You’ll just have to find out yourself…sssh! It’s a big surprise. Highly recommended.
This dog show judge reminded me of Cruella!! She had dogs of her own but was a vindictive, very rich woman who wanted what she wanted and who she wanted and the heck with anyone else! Marty was asked to appraise her collection and went to ask her friend at the antique store what he knew about her. Nothing good–that is for certain. And her friend had a very spoiled little dog who was going to be in a show where this woman was a judge! Turns out she was seeing the guy who was going to show the dog–and when he mentioned it she told him no way would that dog win!! He didn’t believe her–the dog lost. There were several other people who had it out for her as well–for very good reasons!!
Right after the show had ended this woman was found dead in her car! Marty had no choice but to get involved as her detective husband was busy with another high profile case. She managed to speak to all of the suspects–but they all had alibis!
The murderer was never caught–although you will know who did it.
Lots of twists and turns in this story of dog lovers and shows. I am sure you will enjoy this one as much as I did!
A great plot and intriguing characters, some of whom I hope show up in future books. I don’t want to give anything away about the plot, but as always with this series you will definitely find dogs, a physic, and good food.
This review is for the audio book.
I want to say I enjoyed this book and I did up to a point but then I am left scratching my head. What happened to the ending? Is it continued in the next book? Does the killer ever get caught? So many unanswered questions, I think I would have preferred the author miss out the twenty minutes of recipes and finished the story. I know it is good for authors to try new things and I normally really enjoy the author books but it just didn’t work for me. Sorry. Until the strange ending I was enjoying the mystery because the story contained some interesting characters, especially the sister with her psych powers or predictions. This was interesting because it meant you already knew who the suspects were before the murder. I did think with the murder set around a dog show that the dogs would play a bigger part in the story or we would have some funny mishaps with them but the one that we did meet sounded cute, who doesn’t love dressed up pups? Other than the murder victim of course.
The narrator did a good job of the telling of the story and I wanted to give it a higher rating because of her and the authors previous books but I was unsatisfied with the ending .