From Publishers Weekly
Few readers, other than Conant's most devoted fans, will yap happily at her latest Dog Lover's mystery (after The Barker Street Regulars). Canine-crusading sleuth Holly Winter has signed a contract for a book of photographs about the famous Morris and Essex Dog Shows. In researching the events, she encounters an elderly man, B. Robert Motherway, who attended the shows as a youth. Interviewing him, Holly is introduced to his disquieting household: a son and daughter-in-law who are treated like servants, an unseen and deathly ill wife and a haughty grandson. When seemingly natural death and then outright murder visit Motherway family members, Holly pokes her nose in to scent out the truth. With the help of some anonymous letters and her shrewd friend Althea, Holly pieces together the dangerous secrets behind the Motherways' facade of patrician privilege. Canine lore and Conant's proselytizing against evil dog-breeding practices tend to swamp the meager but melodramatic plot, and her villains are so hazily sketched that readers might wonder how they engender any fear. The Barker Street Regulars was a much more accomplished story than this; hopefully Conant's next will be, too. Agent, Deborah Schneider. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Holly Winter, a Boston dog trainer, writer, and sleuth, has a contract to write a book about Rockefeller heiress Geraldine R. Dodge and her pre^-World War II Morris and Essex dog shows. In researching the book, Holly is drawn into a murder, a case of domestic abuse, and evidence of a Nazi spy ring. This twelfth Holly Winter mystery is filled with facts about dog breeding as well as training how-tos. Conant continues to develop her human and canine characters and to reveal the wonderful museums, parks and cemeteries of Boston. Unfortunately, this work is not as strong as The Barker Street Irregulars ; Conant has trouble weaving together the disparate story lines. Recommend it to devoted fans of Conant and other dog mysteries, but Lanier's Ten Little Bloodhounds (see review, p.1481) is a better example of the canine crime subgenre. John Rowen


Review
Praise for Susan Conant's Dog Lover's Mysteries:

The Barker Street Regulars:

"The unique and witty perspective of Holly Winter makes this novel dog-gone fun to read."
--Virginia Quarterly Review

"Anyone interested in dogs, spiritualism, or Sherlock Holmes will find much to enjoy here."
--Booklist

Animal Appetite:

"Swift and engrossing--Conant presents a witty, independent, yet fallible sleuth with inordinate pride in her two Alaskan malamutes. Why not?--they steal every scene."
--Publishers Weekly

Stud Rites:

"Conant's characterizations are dead-on and her descriptions of doggy kitsch...are hilarious."
--Los Angeles Times

Black Ribbon:

"Conant's people and dogs, dialogue and obsessions hold the interest chapter upon chapter, long before blood is drawn and long after."
--Mobile Register

Ruffly Speaking

"A real tag-wagger for lots of readers."
--Washington Post

Bloodlines:

"Lively, funny, and absolutely premium. Conant's readers--with ears up and alert eyes--eagerly await her next."
--Kirkus Reviews

Gone to the Dogs:

"Conant infuses her writing with a healthy dose of humor about Holly's Fido-loving friends and other Cambridge clichés. The target of her considerable wit clearly emerges as human nature."
--Publishers Weekly


Book Description
Dog's Life columnist Holly Winter has just landed a plum contract to write a book on Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge's legendary pre-World War II dog shows. Holly arranges to interview one of the last living participants in those fabulously opulent and exclusive shows: canine fancier B. Robert Motherway.

But there's something decidedly unsettling about the gracious old gent's imposing home with its acres of kennels. His dying wife wails piteously in an upstairs room, his servants are his sullen son and his downtrodden daughter-in-law, and his favorite German shepherd dog has an ill-bred snarl. Meanwhile, Holly's mail is laced with anonymous packages-old photographs, letters in German, and a brochure on pills for listless pooches.

Nothing makes sense until a garroted body is found in a nearby cemetery. Suddenly Holly and her Alaskan malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, are on a seventy-year-old trail of deception, decadence, and death. And either they unearth the skeletons or join them.

FROM THE PUBLISHER