Watchdog (A Melanie Travis Mystery) - Softcover

Berenson, Laurien

4.06

1,281 ratings by Goodreads

9780758213440: Watchdog (A Melanie Travis Mystery)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0758213441 ISBN 13: 9780758213440

Publisher: Kensington, 2006

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It's autumn in Connecticut. Melanie Travis has just started a new job, and with the added excitement of showing her Standard Poodle, Faith, in the fall shows, the last thing she wants is to become embroiled in yet another of her brother Frank's moneymaking schemes. His current brainstorm--remaking an old store in stylish suburban Fairfield County into a trendy coffee bar--already has the neighbors snarling. Worse, wealthy Marcus Rattigan, who's bankrolling the project, is found murdered on the premises, and the police think Frank did it.
"Fresh, lively writing, a tough mystery, light humor, and insight into the peculiarities of human and canine behavior."--Booklist
Always the family watchdog, and faced with Frank's imminent arrest, Melanie has no choice but to take on the investigation. Drawing on her connections in the dog world, Melanie is soon successfully unmuzzling the dead man's nearest and dearest, including a bitter ex-wife, a spurned mistress, and an ambitious second in command. But Melanie is about to learn that being a watchdog can sometimes be dangerous--especially when every clue she uncovers leads her one step closer to a murderer who is desperate enough to kill again. . .

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About the Author:

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.

From Kirkus Reviews:

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. -- Copyright �1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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