Book Review: Fashion Faux Paw by Judi McCoy

Title: Fashion Faux Paw: A Dog Walker Mystery by Judi McCoy
Publication date: March 6, 2012; Signet Books

I had just discovered the Dog Walker Mystery series with this book, the sixth by Judi McCoy, and wondered how I had overlooked her books before. I am a big fan of dog and pet mysteries by authors such as Susan Conant, Virginia Lanier, Stephen Quinn, Lauren Berenson, Linda O. Johnston, Nina Wright, Sue Henry, Cynthia Baxter, and Blaize Clement. (Phew!) So I was delighted to find this author.

As soon as I had finished her new book, Fashion Faux Paw, however, a blogger informed me that author Judi McCoy had died, just this month. I am sure the mystery world will miss her. Her new book introduces her next in the series, Treated to Death, scheduled for publication October 2012. I hope we will see it in print later in the year.

About the book: Dog walker Ellie Engleman is hired to take care of dogs that will walk the runway with models in a major fashion show. Besides giving the dogs daily walks during the show, feeding and grooming them, and making sure they are hooked up with the right models during Fashion Week, Ellie finds herself playing amateur sleuth when the organizers of the show ask her to look into the death of one of the fashion designers.

Lilah Perry, a major designer, had died from anaphylactic shock during the show and everyone is convinced that she was deliberately exposed to peanut oil, which she is severely allergic to. Since Lilah was unpopular with models and designers alike in the fashion world, Ellie finds herself hard pressed to narrow down the suspects. With the help of her dog and sidekick, a mixed breed named Rudy, Ellie sets out to find Lilah's killer.

Comments: I thought the book had a clever plot and a zany animal sidekick, Rudy, who spies on the dogs in the show and gets information from them to help with Ellie's investigation. I don't normally like talking animals in mysteries, (especially talking cats), but Hugo I could put up with. He adds a certain intrigue to the book and I like that the only human he can communicate with is Ellie, who has to explain many times over why she seems to be always talking to her dog.

I'm looking forward to reading Judi McCoy's earlier books in the Dog Walker series. I know I'll enjoy them and, with her fans, wish she was still with us.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book.

Book Reviews: Tempest in the Tea Leaves; Till Death Do Us Bark

Title: Tempest in the Tea Leaves: A Fortune Teller Mystery by Kari Lee Townsend

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Berkley, August 2, 2011

Source: Publisher

Objective rating: 3.75/5

About: Sunny Meadows leaves her wealthy parents behind in Manhattan and heads upstate New York to finally find a life of her own as a fortune teller. She uses tea leaves to see the present and predict the future. Sunny finds an old Victorian mansion, supposedly haunted and therefore at a bargain price, and settles in with a white cat that suddenly appears in the mansion. When her first customer, the town librarian, visits and takes home some of Sunny's tea leaves, things start to go wrong. The librarian is found dead of poisoning, from drinking the tea she had made from Sunny's tea leaves. With the cat Monty, a cat with strange powers, looking on, and the town detective, Mitch, Sunny sets out to clear her name.

Comments: I liked the spunk of the main character Sunny, her zaniness and sense of  humor, which is also the sense of humor of the author, Kari Lee Townsend. In total, there is a likable character in the book -Sunny, a mystery to keep you guessing - the cat Monty, and a love interest in the person of the handsome but suspicious detective, Mitch. Add to that, adoring and protective but clueless parents, and you have a cozy that is entertaining and a nice summer read. This mystery is the first in the series.

Title: Till Death Do Us Bark: A Dog Walker Mystery  by Judi McCoy

Paperback: 336 pages

Publisher: Signet

Publication date: August 2, 2011

Source: Publisher

Objective rating: 3/5 

About: Dog walker Ellie accompanies her best friend Viv to the wedding of Viv's sister in the upscale Hamptons. Among all the guests and their dogs, Ellie is recruited by at least one person who wants a dog walker back in the city. The relative peace doesn't last long, however, as the groom is found murdered outside the guest cottage, and the son of the cook and gardener is considered a suspect. Ellie, an amateur sleuth, who has helped solve murders in the past, is asked to solve the crime, to the dismay of Ellie's protective boyfriend back home.

Comments: I got a bit confused by the names and activities of all the guests and their accompanying dogs, but luckily the book soon focused in on the main characters in the mystery. This is the fifth in the series. I'm looking forward to reading the others.