Customer Reviews

Best In Show (Melanie Travis Mysteries)

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This is the story of what a dog show dedicated to one single breed is like from the point of view of a participant: i.e. a dog owner/breeder/exhibitor who is also becoming part of the family of people who run the national organization in support of that breed. Oh, it is also a story about the death of a woman and the solution to the mystery of who did it, why, and what are all the mysteries surrounding it.

For those who have read the previous Melanie Travis mysteries, this is no surprise. However, for the benefit of those who might consider picking up this book as their first foray into the series, here is some of the background you should know:

Melanie Travis is a single mom in her early 30's who is kinda engaged to Sam Driver. While Melanie's day job is to be a special education counselor in a private school, her after work hours are consumed by her son - Davey; her dogs; her lover; and her unfortunate predilection to get involved in - and solve - murder mysteries. In this novel, Melanie is out of her element in a sense. She decides to take a vacation and participate in the week long poodle show that is the apex of the poodle showing world. She has her own puppy to show - a standard poodle puppy that she bred named Eve; but the main point of her foray is to get away from her normal environment and kid and enjoy a week's "vacation" at the dog show. Sam comes to join her mid-week and their romance is part of the storyline as well.

While at the dog show, Melanie is put to work helping out two elderly sisters who run the annual raffle that raises much money for the club. On the very first day of the show, one of the two sisters is killed in a suspicious way and Melanie spends the rest of the show splitting her time between helping the surviving sister; prepping and showing her dog; and getting involved in a whole bunch of storylines that inevitably lead her to the killer and their motive.

However, the real meat of this book is the annual poodle show. Around 90 to 95 percent of the story is really a description of what this event is like. Since Melanie is Peg's niece, and Peg is on the board of directors of the Poodle club of America (PCA), we get an insider view of what takes place at such events and what takes place behind the scenes to make these kinds of events work and succeed.

The author is clearly very much in love with the whole dog show scene and lovingly describes each activity and event. I did find it funny to notice the semi-derogatory mentions of obedience and agility events as well as the hyper focus on the conformation parts of the show - but that is a minor nit. The author clearly prefers the pageantry of the conformation circuit where the Champion titles are won and very accurately describes these kinds of events. To those of us who are not quite as accomplished at understanding what happens, she gives very nice descriptions of what the judges are doing; why they are doing these things; and even throws in some descriptions of some of the theatrical elements that take place.

The mystery elements are clearly a secondary offering, but that matters very little to me. All the clues as to what is going on are there for you to notice and I figured out reasonably early on who the killer was and why, so there were no real surprises in that part of the story. There are a couple of side stories thrown in to confuse you and they resolve themselves neatly at the end of the book.

I like this entry in the series and would certainly recommend it to those who have read previous books. To those who have not, I would suggest reading this one after some of the others so that the complex relationships between Bob, Sam, and Melanie; Frank and Bertie; Peg and the gang, etc. do not confuse you. All in all, this is a keeper.

the series itself is very much based around the canine sporting events world and having met many of these people myself many of it i have to agree that it can easily shows the viewpoint of someone living outside of the dog world and being gradually introduced just as well as it can show the views of seasoned handlers, owners and breeders of all flavors.

this particular book from the series interested me on many levels even though i am not a exactly a poodle person!

as usual it really captures some of the good and bad personalities at the dog show and the rumor mills that revolve around the competition.

this is a mystery that truly surprised me at every turn with comical theatrics and aghast faces that one can practically picture under the circumstances, it did not make me regret picking this book up and only inspired me to read more of the series.

it does i believe provide very easily understood information on the dog world and everything in it i believe this is a book for everyone with a strong interest in dogs and dog shows.

(I don't know why some reviewers insist on summarizing an entire book and calling it a review.) I enjoyed reading this book. It's a good, lighthearted and fast moving book. Good for a rainly weekend or a roadtrip. Anyone intersted in dogs or showing should enjoy it. However it's not so technical or bogged down in show details that your average reader wouldn't enjoy it either. I'm sure you can guess by my name that I like poodles and I'm also interested in dog showing, so this was a perfect book for me. I did mistakenly think this was the first book in the series, but that didn't really affect my reading exerience. I would highly recommend this book to other people, especially dog lovers.

This is my first Laurien Bereson Book and I know I'm starting in the middle of the series. However, I have read reviews of the first ones to know enough of what the characters are about. I made a choice to start where Sam and Melanie are back together. I perferred not to go through all the previous books to get to this point. I will continue on now with the series. I enjoyed all the characters in the book from Aunt Peg to all the enjoyable canine characters. I did get a little bored with the dog show and found myself skimming some of that. I have 2 dogs and enjoy the books with a mystery and the dogs a part of it but am not real interested to all the goings on at the PCA. However, that didn't really distract me from what was going on. I would reccomend this book if you want a light fun read. There is humor, some mystery, a little romance and lots of dogs. The writing flows right along and yet not one you can't lay down and come back to. There are some so suspenseful that you just can't quit reading. This one is a change of pace for me and I did enjoy it. I just finished a whole series by Lee Charles Kelley (dog trainer/detective)and that was a fun series if you're looking for more dog mystery books. His has lots of humor and dog training tips (though I don't fully understand his technique). I just find all of the books with man's best friend in them delightful. Even some of your more suspenseful writers (Nora Roberts, Karen Robards, Linda Lael Miller) have learned that you can lighten the book some by including a dog or cat. I'm looking forward to more of LB's books and reading of Melanie, Sam and Davy and of course all the canine friends. _

I loved the book. It's a great mystery, with colorful characters. I love the whole series. It's also a fun book, and it's not full of dark or gruesome scenes like some murder mysteries. I would recommend to anybody who likes mysteries.