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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
As an expose of pet shops, okay; as a mystery, horrible, May 7, 1999
By A Customer
S. S. van Dine, once wrote, roughy, "A detective story must have a detective, and a detective is not a detective unless he detects. It is his job to run down the clues that lead to the identity of the guilty person, and if he does not identify the killer based on said clues, he has no more solved the case then the schoolboy who gets the answers out of the back of the arithmetic." At first, I thought this rule was completely obvious, but, this book illustrates why such a rule is important. If you view this as a mystery about illegal dog breeding, then Ms. Winters actually does a decent job investigating and the book does satisfy the above rule. Unfortunately, Ms. Conant found it necessary to add in two murders. They add nothing to the story; in fact, they get solved because Ms. Winters, in blundering around, happens to stumble upon the answer. Even worse, after the killer is caught, her final explanation makes little sense, and nearly matches _The Five Red Herrings_ and _The Cat who Read Backwards_ in terms of total incoherence of any mystery solution. In short, if you want to read about dogs being mistreated, read it, but if you want a good mystery, stay far away.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book I've read from Susan Conant, July 30, 2000
By A Customer
I started on the Susan Conant books because I was checking the liberary for some malamute books, but this time, other than the ordinary books I've read thousands of times, I found a different book! And a mystery too! I'd never read the series, let alone heard of them, I started reading this book, never reading the previous ones. Although the previous books had information on the characters from reading a later book, the characters were well developed from the start, not always refering to a book before. Reading this book first, it spoiled me. I finished this book thinking, man there's gotta be another one or I'll blow up this is soooo good. I came onto Amazon and found there was a series, I imediately bought the first 4. Like I said, Bloodlines spoiled me, I expected somthing and great and breathtaking as this book, but there is none. In the first books I found myself scanning over chapters not even suffering from not getting the information. None so far have lived up to the greatness of Bloodlines. Another thing that struck me was that Holly was actually getting physical with getting info for her column in this book, usually she would call around or walk around getting info, but this time she snuck around the mills and the pet stores with suspense of getting caught. This book has the real truth about puppy mills, and after reading this book I have done many research and helping to close down Pupppy mills Also this book had lots on the malamute my all time favorite animal in the world, Holly was working on rescue. I will keep on reading the books waiting for one that can match this one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Overkill, Indeed, November 4, 2005
I completely agree with the reviewer who deemed this novel "overkill" with regards to the puppy mill preaching. Those of us interested enough in dogs to pick up this book and read it are already well aware of the puppy mill industry. This choir member did not appreciate being preached at for 45 pages of a novel that would have been better spent with more plot development. Also, I got a little weary of all the explanations of dog training and AKC show terms and slang. Again, those of us interested enough in dogs to pick up this novel already know what UDX, CDX and OFA stand for. Readers interested enough in dogs to pick up this book but do not know what BOB stands for, what "finishing" a dog means, or what an Open class is would probably take the time to find out. I would have preferred a Patrick O'Brian appraoch in regards to the terms and slang. Just throw 'em out there for those of us who know, and pique the interest of those that don't. The way it turned out, however, is that one hundred and fifty pages of a 256 page novel were all either dog show terms explained, or extolling the evils of the puppy mill industry. I am a bit amazed that Ms. Conant does not say anything at all about the average "backyard breeder" who knows nothing of breeding dogs and wants to do it simply because his dog has papers, who do just as much damage to a breed as puppy mills, if not more. Go figure. I have two other Susan Conant Dog Lover's Mysteries to read, and after this first, I am a little leery of even opening the covers.
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