Teacup Turbulence by Linda O. Johnston

First Chapter, First Paragraph is a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

First paragraph:

"But I was here first!" The senior lady with frizzy yellow hair stood in front of me on the crowded sidewalk. She placed her hands on her hips and looked up with her lower lip jutting belligerently.
I tried to smile, in case this woman was a better potential dog adopter than she initially seemed. "That never matters in pet adoptions. What's important is finding the right home for each of our wards."

Title: Teacup Turbulence: A Pet Rescue Mystery by Linda O. Johnston 
Published January 7, 2014; Berkley
Genre: cozy mystery

Book description: "Los Angeles animal shelter manager Lauren Vancouver has a soft spot for animals in need—and a keen eye for crime. . .

Thanks to a savvy ad campaign for HotPets Bling—a new line of faux jewelry dog collars—small dog adoptions have skyrocketed across the city. So when Lauren discovers a shelter in the Midwest with more toy dogs than it can handle, she arranges a private plane to fly the pups back to LA.

But Lauren didn’t count on rescue worker Teresa Kantrim coming along for the ride. Her biting comments haven’t earned Teresa any new friends, but when she turns up murdered, Lauren digs into Teresa’s past to find out who wanted her put down." (publisher)

Based on the opening paragraph of the book and the book description, would you keep on reading? 

Book Review: Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"So what's the official theory?" I addressed my question to Ralph. "I suspect it was my buddy Efram, here, who tossed those puppies into the drain."  (ch. 1)

Beaglemania (A Pet Rescue Mystery) by Linda O. Johnston
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley (March 1, 2011)
Genre: mystery
Objective review: 3.75/5

Book description: "Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse-and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage..." (Goodreads).

Comments: I like that the author brings the problem of puppy mills and pet rescue efforts to light through this novel, the first in the new pet rescue series. The plot so far is good,  but I keep comparing pet rescuer Lauren Vancouver to Kendra Ballantyne, the petsitter in Linda O. Johnston's other mystery series, and Lauren is not as well developed a character as yet.  Still a mystery worth reading.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Fright of the Iguana, book review

The Fright of the Iguana: Pet-Sitter Mystery

"And when the heck was I going to stop asking questions and do something useful?

So asks Kendra Ballantyne as she goes about solving the mystery of pet-nabbed pets while she takes care of a host of other animals and also works as a lawyer and conflict resolver.

This is from Linda O. Johnston's newest book in her Pet Sitter Mystery series featuring Kendra Ballantyne - The Fright of the Iguana.

Dogs and cats and an iguana have disappeared while under the care of members of the Petsitters Club of Southern California. Two of Kendra's charges, a 3-foot iguana and a Sharpei pup, have disappeared from the property of their owner, a high profile Hollywood film producer. Kendra is frantic to find the pets and soon discovers that other petsitters have had similar experiences - disappearing animals under their care. When one of the petsitters is found killed in one of the homes, things begin to get very serious.

The plot of the novel is clever and the sub plots are entertaining as well as informative. Conflict resolution in the legal world, the business of petsitting and pet daycare, and interesting characters made this an enjoyable cozy.

Book Review: Meow is for Murder by Linda O. Johnston

Meow is for Murder, Petsitter Mystery by Linda O. Johnston, published 2007 by Berkley

Finished that cozy mystery, Meow is for Murder, and couldn't have guessed ahead of time the person who "dunnit" or how those two Bengal cats were used to find the murderer. Clever little plot, although the deal that petsitter and lawyer Kendra makes with a suspect is unusual and somewhat unrealistic, I thought.

The suspect, Amanda, is charged with the murder of man who has been stalking her. Amanda is the ex-wife of Kendra's current love, Jeff, and a bit of a stalker herself, always showing up at Jeff's door with various and sundry requests for help and assistance. She promises to stay out of Jeff's life for good if Kendra, an amateur sleuth on top of everything else, will find the real killer and get her off the murder hook.

Here's the weird part. Amanda signs a "legal" and "binding" document saying she will be out of Jeff's life forever if Kendra proves her innocent.

In the end, Kendra finds that Jeff may not have been worth all the trouble after all and accepts a date with, here it comes....., a vet that she meets on one of her other lawyerly cases. Now, like so many of the mystery heroines these days, such as Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's books, this main characer has two love interests to add sauce to the mystery.

Catch Kendra in the next book in the series to see how the new guy works out. That's how the mystery series sometimes works - a thread of romantic intrigue leads you on to the next book. Curiousity doesn't always kill the cat, but it sure makes some writers Fat Cats.

Book Review: Hounded To Death by Laurien Berenson

I'm reading Meow Is for Murder, a pet sitter mystery with a ball python named Pythagoras and a dog called Stromboli, not to mention two Bengal cats cutely named Cherise and Carnie. I noticed that the author, Linda O. Johnston resembles another pet mystery writer, Laurien Berenson, whose latest mystery, Hounded to Death, I've just finished.

These two writers could be sisters or even twins, I thought. They both have the same kind of hair, same length, and style, and their features are similar. One parts her hair on the right, the other on the left, however. One wears glasses, the other doesn't. Well, I don't think they are the same person, writing under pseudonyms as some writers are wont to do.

Besides, one likes King Charles Spaniels and lives in California, and the other loves poodles and writes in Kentucky.

Their writing styles are also different.

Meow is for Murder is full of alliterative fun. Johnston loves to play with words, which she does all through her book. Berenson in Hounded to Death has amusing characters though she also has a pun in her book title. They write about different personalities altogether - a pet sitter cum lawyer versus a special needs tutor cum dog trainer. (Seems dealing with pets isn't nearly enough - main character must also have a respectable profession),

Both authors however have a great time creating zany or colorful characters to move their mystery plots along - one about pet sitting two Bengal cats, the other about dog show personalities and a dog show symposium.

Both involve murder, of course. And, naturally, the pets are not among the guilty parties.