Monday, October 24, 2016

The Rachel Alexander and Dash Mysteries: This Dog for Hire, The Dog Who Knew Too Much, and A Hell of a Dog by Carol Lea Benjamin

This is a collection of the first three books in this series.  My favorite characters in these stories are the dogs.  They really steal the show from the humans!

Open Road Integrated Media and Net Galley allowed me to read these for review (thank you).  It will be published tomorrow.

This Dog for Hire is about an artist who got run down on a pier on the ocean front.  Cars weren't allowed there but someone didn't care.  Rachel gets hired to do find the dog he had and figure out who would have killed the artist.  He was down there for a gay rendezvous with someone.  Was the murderer another boyfriend?  Someone who wanted to profit from the artwork?  Someone who hated the artist?  Rachel has her work cut out for her.

Her dog, Dash, is a pit bull with black mark around his eye.  He follows her commands competently and he's willing to protect her.  She needs him.  She's always getting in trouble.

The Dog Who Knew Too Much was Lisa's Akita.  Rachel was hired by Lisa's parents to find out why she would have jumped from a window and committed suicide, leaving her dog behind.  She knows the dog saw something but she can't talk.  The more questions she asks, the less reason she has for believing it was suicide.  She was moving to China, following her life's dream.  She had tickets so she wouldn't have jumped.  So who pushed her?

In A Hell of a Dog you have a conference of dog trainers explaining their tactics.  Not many of the participants see eye-to-eye, but they should able to get along for a week.  It's not to be.  Two men in the group die.  It appears to be natural but it's not.  And when the third man dies, Rachel finally remembers something from years ago.  The killer was a surprise in this one.

Each book was a little better than the last one.  I hadn't read any of these before and appreciate the opportunity to sample them.  If you have an interest in dogs, you'll meet one in these stories you'll like.  Here's a good way to pick them up in one volume.  And there's more in the series for later.

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