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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
Cosy mysteries are not something I read a lot of, but after reading this book I made a note to myself that I'll be on the look out for more.
This book captured my eye firstly because it has a dog on the cover and secondly because of its title. And so after reading a few reviews I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad I did. Who would've thought reading about people meeting in a local dog park on a daily basis could be so entertaining. This book has been very cleverly written and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Very enjoyable and I'm now a fan of cosy mysteries. Recommended.
This book captured my eye firstly because it has a dog on the cover and secondly because of its title. And so after reading a few reviews I was intrigued and thought I'd give it a go and I'm glad I did. Who would've thought reading about people meeting in a local dog park on a daily basis could be so entertaining. This book has been very cleverly written and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series. Very enjoyable and I'm now a fan of cosy mysteries. Recommended.
Dog Parks really are strange places. You meet people from all walks of life, all connected by their love of dogs. Setting a murder mystery with that as a background is an interesting idea and for the most part the book works. It's entertaining even if it's a little obvious.
Parts of the book it felt like one red herring after another and that's OK except they were quite plainly red herrings.
So it's not the greatest book ever written but if you want to kill some time and be entertained along the way, you could do worse.
Parts of the book it felt like one red herring after another and that's OK except they were quite plainly red herrings.
So it's not the greatest book ever written but if you want to kill some time and be entertained along the way, you could do worse.
I can't believe it took me so long to get this finished. Amazing what a disastrous move will do for you.
Lia loves her dogs and takes them to the dog bark regularly. She has a group of friends at the park and her on again off again boy friend also comes to the park. One early morning as she arrives at the park she sees Luthors car in the parking lot. She wonders why he would be here so early and approaches the car. What she finds in the car sends her life into a tail spin. Detective Peter Dourson is in charge of the case and quickly eliminates Lia from the suspect list, good thing he does because he finds himself attracted to her. Her artistic talent allows Lia to express herself in a way that touches peoples hearts. Peter is not immune to her charms. Peter begins to spend a significant amount of time at the dog park because he believes the suspect is a member of the group that regularly comes there.
This was a very enjoyable story. I liked the writing style. I am hoping to be able to find the other stories available in our new home in Ohio so that I can continue the series.
Lia loves her dogs and takes them to the dog bark regularly. She has a group of friends at the park and her on again off again boy friend also comes to the park. One early morning as she arrives at the park she sees Luthors car in the parking lot. She wonders why he would be here so early and approaches the car. What she finds in the car sends her life into a tail spin. Detective Peter Dourson is in charge of the case and quickly eliminates Lia from the suspect list, good thing he does because he finds himself attracted to her. Her artistic talent allows Lia to express herself in a way that touches peoples hearts. Peter is not immune to her charms. Peter begins to spend a significant amount of time at the dog park because he believes the suspect is a member of the group that regularly comes there.
This was a very enjoyable story. I liked the writing style. I am hoping to be able to find the other stories available in our new home in Ohio so that I can continue the series.
mysterious
fast-paced
A Shot in the Bark is the first book in the Dog Park Mysteries. It is a delightful, cozy whodunit featuring a group of slightly eccentric people who meet up regularly in the local dog park. There's a staged suicide and the detective in charge of the case infiltrates the group to investigate, while at the same time falling for one of the dog owners.
The chapters alternate between the killer's perspective, which was very well done, and the events surrounding the dog people. There were a few nice twists, some light romance and a good bit of humor. An easy, quick read, but if you want all questions answered, you need to read book 2 in the series.
I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
The chapters alternate between the killer's perspective, which was very well done, and the events surrounding the dog people. There were a few nice twists, some light romance and a good bit of humor. An easy, quick read, but if you want all questions answered, you need to read book 2 in the series.
I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Is there a serial killer walking among the dog owners of Mount Airy Dog Park. The thought occurs when Artist Lia Anderson finds her boyfriend dead in the park.
The story is good, but the writing on this one could be better. I did enjoy reading about all of the dogs and their owners. The writing was just tedious and I think it might just be that it was not written from a person's perspective and their interactions, but rather from the outside looking in and you had to read everything that each person thought, did and said. Once the story got moving, it didn't take long. However, with the conclusion, I guess it's not really as wrapped up as it seems.
I liked this story; the characters were fun, the plot was interesting. However, I wish the ending had been a bit different. I really would have liked to find out who the killer was. From what I see in the reviews on Amazon, it seems as though there is a sequel in the works. Hopefully that sequel will tie up the loose ends.
A quick, easy read. It's the first in a series and I would read others in the series
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Book Report: Artist and Cincinnati urban dog-owner Lia spends her mornings with an oddball crew of fellow urban dog folks, giving their pooches a chance to romp, run, socialize, and generally get their doggy-day off to a good start. Likewise the people, all having convenience-store coffee and the occasional donut among the similarly inclined. As with any group of people who meet and become acquainted around a common interest, there are passionate rivalries, there are lasting friendships, there is a murder.
Wait...what was that last one again? A murder?! Luthor's beat-up old Corolla is in the parking lot one early morning when Lia arrives, to her irritation, and she stomps over to the car to yell at Luthor for stalking her, she yanks open the door, and finds Luthor's brains splattered all over the car. Apparently a suicide by gunshot, even though he was a coward, appearance-conscious, and afraid of guns. Lia has broken up for the third (and everyone around the dog park hopes the last) time with Luthor, writer manque and well-dressed layabout drama queen, who has been taking it hard. Well, he is a drama queen, so what else can be expected? Lia, poor deluded lamb, was hoping for a clean getaway, and says as much to Anna, an older and more...composed...person. Anna gently, and sometimes not so gently, punctures illusions, pretensions, and wrong-headedness among all the park's regulars, Lia no exception. It's Anna, after all, who started the fashion among the women of the park to roll their eyes practically in the face of helpless little femme fatale Catherine, a married society lady whose hair is dyed to match her Pomeranians, Caesar and Cleo (shudder all the way around on this one). Catherine has joined the group, the women suspect, just to get away from her long-term marriage's ennui and get some male attention, as it happens from Jim, a courtly older bachelor and, pre-Catherine, Anna's particular friend. Terry, a right-wing NRA supporter, Marie Woo, a lesbian Asian-American with multi-colored hair and a snarky wit, Bailey, a quietly competent New Age-y landscape architect, and Jose, a working-class Italian guy with a backhoe and a story he won't tell, are the other regulars who figure into the story.
Luthor's louche past, well actually present, as a womanizing gigolo comes out in the police investigation of the apparent suicide, and ties Luthor directly to Catherine. It looks like the investigation is going nowhere because Catherine can't be tied to the gun that killed him, and can't be proved to be in contact with Luthor at the time of his death; the reason that it is being investigated at all is that Luthor was shot in the right temple. He was left-handed. A scaredy cat gunphobe shooting himself with the non-dominant hand, while stone cold sober? No way Jose (the source of out Italian buddy's nickname, BTW). So homicide cop Peter begins to flail about, spending time in the dog park with Luthor's orphaned dog Viola whom he is now caring for, and making goo-goo eyes at Lia, who is completely freaked about Luthor's death, about the idea that Peter shares with her that one of her friends murdered him, and about the strength of her attraction to Peter.
In the end, the threads are tied off and the plot resolved. There is a twist at the end, one that makes the mystery a mystery, and of which I must say I approve.
My Review: But there are things that I don't approve of in a good deal of this first book. I enjoyed myself as I read it, there is no doubt, and I liked the characters quite a bit. If the author writes more of them, I'll probably read at least one or two more.
One is the use of the killer's PoV for italicized segments of the tale that are there simply to tell us why the killer did it. Better that we don't know, honestly. And the killer's gender is given away in the first sentence of the Prologue, which means half the dog park's regulars are out as suspects. That really dulls the knife-edge of suspense when the suicide is deemed a murder. And while we know the gender, the groundlings don't, and yet Lia trusts one of them enough to spill her fears and frustrations to, when that one could easily be the murderer.
The author juggles a large cast in the book, and I think could profitably have trimmed a few out entirely. She could stand to beef up the backstory and supply motives for the main players here, ie Jim, Anna, Marie, Jose, and Terry. As it was, the twist at the end supplies some suspense and sets up a potential sequel, but the book's warm and enfolding tone would be well-served by expanding the cast's reasons for being at the dog park and for forming the interesting little society that they do, Granted that this wouldn't necessarily be through conversation, but the hurdle isn't insurmountable for a writer of Newsome's evident ability.
Peter the cop and Bailey his metrosexual sidekick are nicely drawn, although some explanation of why Bailey isn't then is Peter's sidekick wouldn't have come amiss. The guys have a good relationship, and it's enough to give Peter an offstage presence that works. Alma, Peter's elderly gardening nut neighbor, comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, and she's a missed opportunity for Peter to have an interesting added dimension: Why does he know her? What do they talk about? Where does Peter live that he's in an apartment and Alma has a greenhouse in her back yard?
But these are quibbles. And the fact that I have quibbles with A Shot in the Bark is a very good sign. I was so engaged and so interested that I noticed things, and missed having things, and generally was right there in the story to the extent that I was participating in it. That's not so easy to accomplish, since I've been reading mysteries for thirty-four years. Most of them get fifteen or twenty pages and are out. Not this one...and that is saying a lot. Well done indeed, Ms. Newsome, and thank you.
The Book Report: Artist and Cincinnati urban dog-owner Lia spends her mornings with an oddball crew of fellow urban dog folks, giving their pooches a chance to romp, run, socialize, and generally get their doggy-day off to a good start. Likewise the people, all having convenience-store coffee and the occasional donut among the similarly inclined. As with any group of people who meet and become acquainted around a common interest, there are passionate rivalries, there are lasting friendships, there is a murder.
Wait...what was that last one again? A murder?! Luthor's beat-up old Corolla is in the parking lot one early morning when Lia arrives, to her irritation, and she stomps over to the car to yell at Luthor for stalking her, she yanks open the door, and finds Luthor's brains splattered all over the car. Apparently a suicide by gunshot, even though he was a coward, appearance-conscious, and afraid of guns. Lia has broken up for the third (and everyone around the dog park hopes the last) time with Luthor, writer manque and well-dressed layabout drama queen, who has been taking it hard. Well, he is a drama queen, so what else can be expected? Lia, poor deluded lamb, was hoping for a clean getaway, and says as much to Anna, an older and more...composed...person. Anna gently, and sometimes not so gently, punctures illusions, pretensions, and wrong-headedness among all the park's regulars, Lia no exception. It's Anna, after all, who started the fashion among the women of the park to roll their eyes practically in the face of helpless little femme fatale Catherine, a married society lady whose hair is dyed to match her Pomeranians, Caesar and Cleo (shudder all the way around on this one). Catherine has joined the group, the women suspect, just to get away from her long-term marriage's ennui and get some male attention, as it happens from Jim, a courtly older bachelor and, pre-Catherine, Anna's particular friend. Terry, a right-wing NRA supporter, Marie Woo, a lesbian Asian-American with multi-colored hair and a snarky wit, Bailey, a quietly competent New Age-y landscape architect, and Jose, a working-class Italian guy with a backhoe and a story he won't tell, are the other regulars who figure into the story.
Luthor's louche past, well actually present, as a womanizing gigolo comes out in the police investigation of the apparent suicide, and ties Luthor directly to Catherine. It looks like the investigation is going nowhere because Catherine can't be tied to the gun that killed him, and can't be proved to be in contact with Luthor at the time of his death; the reason that it is being investigated at all is that Luthor was shot in the right temple. He was left-handed. A scaredy cat gunphobe shooting himself with the non-dominant hand, while stone cold sober? No way Jose (the source of out Italian buddy's nickname, BTW). So homicide cop Peter begins to flail about, spending time in the dog park with Luthor's orphaned dog Viola whom he is now caring for, and making goo-goo eyes at Lia, who is completely freaked about Luthor's death, about the idea that Peter shares with her that one of her friends murdered him, and about the strength of her attraction to Peter.
In the end, the threads are tied off and the plot resolved. There is a twist at the end, one that makes the mystery a mystery, and of which I must say I approve.
My Review: But there are things that I don't approve of in a good deal of this first book. I enjoyed myself as I read it, there is no doubt, and I liked the characters quite a bit. If the author writes more of them, I'll probably read at least one or two more.
One is the use of the killer's PoV for italicized segments of the tale that are there simply to tell us why the killer did it. Better that we don't know, honestly. And the killer's gender is given away in the first sentence of the Prologue, which means half the dog park's regulars are out as suspects. That really dulls the knife-edge of suspense when the suicide is deemed a murder. And while we know the gender, the groundlings don't, and yet Lia trusts one of them enough to spill her fears and frustrations to, when that one could easily be the murderer.
The author juggles a large cast in the book, and I think could profitably have trimmed a few out entirely. She could stand to beef up the backstory and supply motives for the main players here, ie Jim, Anna, Marie, Jose, and Terry. As it was, the twist at the end supplies some suspense and sets up a potential sequel, but the book's warm and enfolding tone would be well-served by expanding the cast's reasons for being at the dog park and for forming the interesting little society that they do, Granted that this wouldn't necessarily be through conversation, but the hurdle isn't insurmountable for a writer of Newsome's evident ability.
Peter the cop and Bailey his metrosexual sidekick are nicely drawn, although some explanation of why Bailey isn't then is Peter's sidekick wouldn't have come amiss. The guys have a good relationship, and it's enough to give Peter an offstage presence that works. Alma, Peter's elderly gardening nut neighbor, comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere, and she's a missed opportunity for Peter to have an interesting added dimension: Why does he know her? What do they talk about? Where does Peter live that he's in an apartment and Alma has a greenhouse in her back yard?
But these are quibbles. And the fact that I have quibbles with A Shot in the Bark is a very good sign. I was so engaged and so interested that I noticed things, and missed having things, and generally was right there in the story to the extent that I was participating in it. That's not so easy to accomplish, since I've been reading mysteries for thirty-four years. Most of them get fifteen or twenty pages and are out. Not this one...and that is saying a lot. Well done indeed, Ms. Newsome, and thank you.