Murder She Barked
Krista Davis

Genre:
Mystery
Rating:

The Sugar Maple Inn in Wagtail, Virginia, is the country's premiere vacation hot spot for pet owners who can’t bear to leave their furry friends behind. But this tourist town smells trouble when a killer goes on the prowl....

Holly Miller's life has gone to the dogs. She has no job, her boyfriend's former flame is sniffing around, and a scruffy but loveable Jack Russell Terrier is

scattering crumbs all over her borrowed car. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, a troubling phone call about her grandmother sends her rushing home to the family inn on Wagtail Mountain.

The staff—and a frisky Calico kitten named Twinkletoes—adopts Holly and her new dog on arrival. But someone in this friendly town is bad to the bone. One of the employees at the inn has been killed in a hit-and-run accident—which is looking anything but accidental. Now Holly and her furry companions will have to nose out the murderer before someone else gets muzzled.

Delicious recipes for owners and pets included!

Review

For fans of: Leann Sweeney

Some of Holly Miller’s fondest childhood memories are from the summers she spent “helping” her grandmother Liesel run The Sugar Maple Inn in Wagtail, Virginia. Holly always intended to return to the inn as an adult, but life kept getting in the way – until she received a panicked call from Liesel’s best friend pleading for her to come quickly.

Holly makes the trip to Wagtail to find her grandmother laid up as the result of a close encounter with a speeding car. She’s relieved her grandmother wasn’t more seriously injured, but is horrified to learn that while the vehicle merely sideswiped Liesel, it killed the man she was with – and what’s more, the “accident” seems to have been both intentional and pre-meditated.

Who perpetrated the hit-and-run, and is he or she still gunning for Holly’s grandmother? Holly’s determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, lest this visit with Liesel be her last.

Murder, She Barked is the first in Krista Davis’ new Paws & Claws Mystery series, and there’s a lot to like about this book. Davis’ setup is efficient yet engaging. Her human cast members are charming, quirky, and fully fleshed, and her canine and feline characters are written with personality, intelligence, and obvious affection. I absolutely adore that Davis’ backdrop is an idyllic little resort town that caters to pets and their people. The lodging, the eateries, the stores, and even the traffic patterns are all designed with companion animals in mind, making Wagtail the kind of place that any devoted dog- or cat-owner would love to either vacation or call home.

But while I adore the book’s trappings, the whodunit component of Murder, She Barked isn’t quite up to Davis’ usual standards. Her mystery is mild yet extraordinarily convoluted; for three-quarters of the tale, I found myself wishing for more drama, action, and tension, but when it came time for the big reveal I got lost in the twists, turns, and double-crosses. A couple fewer coincidences and this book might have been a December Top Pick, but as it stands, the denouement left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess the upshot is that if you’re looking to take a pleasant and reasonably diverting fictional vacation, Murder, She Barked should fit the bill; it’s basically a Nancy-Drew-style story for animal-lovers. If you’re looking for a tale that’ll actively challenge your inner amateur sleuth, though, you may want to look elsewhere.

Reviewed by Kat