The Bark Before Christmas
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4.6 • 8 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
In this “enjoyable” holiday mystery by an Agatha Award finalist, a sleuth looks into a posh private school, a prize show dog, and a slain Santa (Publishers Weekly).
There’s nothing lovelier than Christmas in Connecticut, but Melanie Travis can scarcely find a moment to enjoy the festivities. With her youngest son approaching toddlerhood, she’s decided to return to her old job at Howard Academy, a posh private school attended by the children of Greenwich’s well-heeled gentry. Balancing work, motherhood, and the hectic dog show circuit takes some fancy footwork, especially when the headmaster taps her to be the chairman of the school’s Christmas Bazaar.
The Christmas Bazaar is Howard Academy’s biggest and most important fundraiser, so Melanie feels the pressure to make it a huge success. But everything goes awry when a prize show dog goes missing and Santa turns up dead. The dog’s owner is one of the school’s most perfectly pedigreed alums, and she enlists Melanie to help find the purloined pooch. But just as Melanie starts pawing at the truth, she digs up a sleighful of sinister secrets that leaves everyone feeling less than merry…
“Cozy mystery fans and dog lovers will lap this one up.”—Library Journal
“Laurien Berenson is a rare breed of writer.”—The Plain Dealer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Berenson's enjoyable 18th Melanie Travis canine mystery (after 2014's Death of a Dog Whisperer), the headmaster of Howard Academy in Greenwich, Conn., presses Melanie, who has recently resumed her old job as a special-needs tutor at Howard, into serving as the chair of the school's annual Christmas bazaar fund-raiser. One of the event's biggest attractions is pet photos with Santa. Unfortunately, Kiltie, the West Highland White Terrier belonging to wealthy, troublesome Hanover parent Sondra McEvoy, goes missing from the crowded show, as does the show's Santa Claus, a last-minute replacement about whom the headmaster knows little. When Sondra threatens to sue the school for the loss of Kiltie (valued at $100,000), Melanie, aided by her redoubtable aunt Peg Turnbull, must squeeze detection into her busy holiday schedule. The Travis family's six Standard Poodles, as well as various other breeds, all play major roles in a whodunit sure to please dog-loving cozy readers.
