Customer Reviews

Bride and Groom (Dog Lover's Mystery)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an avid fan of Susan Conant, I found this book to be one of the best -- if not *the* best -- of the Holly Winter series. Of course, I'm biased. You may not feel the same way if you're new to the Conant series. And of course, you may not feel the same way if you're not a dog-lover.

Holly finally is ready to marry her true love, veterinarian Steve Delaney. They'll join not only their lives but also their dogs. Holly reconciles herself to the wedding rituals when she realizes she'll be holding the place of honor as Best of Show. Of course, the dogs will be in the wedding party, which limits their choice of locations. And she's signing copies of her new cookbook for dogs, featuring her favorite liver treats.

As Holly whirls through the preparations, a serial killer seems to be targeting women who have some connection to dogs. Holly doesn't get involved but inadvertently puts together pieces that point to a killer surprisingly close to home.

Experienced mystery readers will recognize the red herring dangled before them. They'll realize this person can't be the murderer, but I have to admit I wondered how the author could come up with another plausible killer. About eighty pages before the end of the book, she drops clues with a thud, and most readers will guess the real villain's identity. And they'll admire the way Conant pulls it off, dropping hints to add motive and plausibility.

I was never tempted to peek at the end. I waited for the author to solve the crime at her own pace and enjoyed every moment along the way.

Long-time readers will love the last scene. Right after capturing the killer, Holly and Steve hold their rehearsal and dinner. Next day, they're joined in a wedding ceremony that will leave dog fanatics misty-eyed. If you've never had a dog, you may think it's over the top, but it's what I would want for myself. And let's thank the author for sparing us the recipes.

The only omission is Holly's new cat, Tracker, described as ugly and unloveable. Cats may be independent, but I've seen cats warm up to affectionate, patient owners. Leaving the poor cat alone all day won't improve its disposition! Author Conant's bio includes reference to two cats, so she should know! Hopefully Tracker will get more attention in the next volume.

Had Jane Austen met and married P.G. Wodehouse the product of their union would have been Susan Conant. Bride & Groom is her best effort so far (and all are gems)- subtle, humorous and sophisticated. The characters are endearing for their huanity and she doesn't make it simple to guess the "villain" (who doen't necessarily fit the traditional role of villain). All in all, a delicious read. If I were still teaching English I would use it as a perfect example of excellence in modern mystery writing.

Now that Cambridge, Massachusetts veterinarian Steve Delaney's divorce is final, he is able to marry the woman he really loves Holly Winters. She is a dog trainer; a columnist for Dog's Life and the author of her first book 101 WAYS TO COOK LIVER. Her friend, veterinarian and fellow author Mac McLoud is sharing book signings with her. Between getting ready for the wedding and doing her best to promote her book, Holly doesn't have a moment to breath.

When the first murder occurs, Holly doesn't think anything of that because the victim is a doctor from out of town that she never met. The second victim of the Cambridge killer is known in dog circles for her canine tarot cards. By the time the third killing occurs, Holly is becoming concerned because the victim was a woman who Holly once interviewed. As more murders occur, Holly realizes she knows each of the victims and it becomes obvious that the culprit is someone amongst her dog-loving friends. Holly starts investigating so that she can discover who the killer is and put an end to the crimes so she can enjoy her wedding.

Between Steve and Holly, they have five pedigreed dogs and a ferocious cat. The animals steal the show with their antics and lessen the tension when it threatens to overwhelm the reader. Each victim is female, bludgeoned to death and is then given an injection of medicine that most vets use in their practice. BRIDE AND GROOM is a romantic mystery that will appeal to dog lovers and readers who like a fantastic who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

I've read all of Susan Conant's books and this is one of the best. Maybe the plot got a little confabulated at the end, but that's a minor point. This is a really good read for an animal lover. The writer has such warmth for her dogs, as well as for her human friends, that reading this is like basking in the warm sun. Even the villains were quite nice, you couldn't really hate and revile them.

The writer has assembled an interesting cast of characters who appear in this series, and she has the knack of getting her readers involved in their lives so that we really care about Rita's love-life and Althea's health as well as Holly and Steve and their dogs. For once I can actually remember who the characters are when I pick up the book again - I find them well drawn and very true to life. I enjoyed her digs at the intellectual elitism of the town, and her irreverent attitude to most things, including her own wedding.

This was a very pleasant, light read. The love of dogs shone through it and made me realize how much my own dog means to me.

Susan Conant never fails to satisfy her readers. Bride and Groom is non-stop suspense and entertainment. She has Holly multi-tasking when she is planning her dream wedding and promoting her new book. To add to her schedule, a killer is on the loose and the victims are women that she knows in the dog business. There is no time to spare with her wedding date getting closer.

I just finished Bride and Groom. This was the first Holly Winter mystery I have read in a while, as I became disappointed in the long rambling paragraphs and uninteresting story lines of her later mysteries. However I LOVE dogs and wanted to try them again. B&G was much better than many of her latter books. Still a lot of rambling by Holly, but not as bad. The introduction of a new puppy, Sammy, brought lots of smiles. And the wedding story line was very fast-paced. Many of my old "favorite" characters were back and involved-- Rita, Kevin, Steve... even the dog club trainers got named! The actual mystery? Eh, so-so. It was disappointing in the end and the actual killing didn't make sense. Many of the characters were VERY flat and almost caricatures (Ceci and Althea, for instance--ESPECIALLY Ceci!!). This led to lots of eye-rolling as I read! But in general, a good book, and better than most of Conant's latter Dog mysteries. A solid "B" from me. :o)

I preordered this book in hardback, as I have all the author's books since they first started coming out in hardback, but I am just now barely getting through it. I loved the earlier dog training oriented books in the series and sometimes reread them. But I must confess the later books seem to be less and less interested in dogs. And even though the mystery aspect of the novels have always taken second place to the dogs, these later novels are even less interested in crafting a mystery. What substitutes are more pages of trivia and rambling introspection that seem unrelated to dogs or the plot of the novel.

In this one, I found the mystery incomprehensible. Why would Mac, who seemed to be well off and relatively easygoing if a philanderer, whose kids liked him, and who was reported as begging his wife to forgive him, ever give a wife an ultimatum that she could have no more dogs? Perhaps I missed something -- I was skimming through the book a lot. But the murderer's -- and even the philandering husband's -- motives and actions weren't believable. Their resolution was also handled "off stage", in a rush, and left me feeling still more unconvinced as to why the characters acted as they did. This book, which was a "finale" of sorts in that it involved the marriage of Steve and Holly deserved more attention to producing a believable mystery and more effort in the final resolution of it.

Regarding the trivia, it seems to serve as a way of providing exposition as opposed to dialogue. Whatever happened to bringing characters into the story, to Holly sleuthing and searching to give us some of the information in dialogue instead of having Holly searching the web and giving us a precis of her finds, or having us read emails? Dialogue, as opposed to narrative exposition would have forwarded the story better.

This novel also seemed disjointed in a lack of real connection between characters and the two main plots. It would have been better if the mystery and the wedding had been constructed to dovetail, instead of two relatively unrelated plots jogging along, uncoordinated. Have the murder involve the characters at some wedding planning shop run by some dog lover with a philandering husband. Or a murder between some patrons of a wedding shop or wedding related business. Or at a dog training club where Holly went to give her dogs practice in not eating the flower collars (given malamutes eat everything, it was puzzling they should be indifferent to those and that we were given so little info on training for the wedding. That seemed an opportunity lost). If the murder was more related to the wedding, some of the information could have been more easily relayed in dialogue even without Holly having to do much sleuthing, as well as tying the mystery to the wedding, instead of so much narrative. The murder and wedding could have proceeded more naturally together.

It would have been nice too, if the familiar characters had more than walk on parts in the novel. Keven could have spent some time solving the murder while Holly and the rest had their wedding planning around it and him. Rita could have come in for dispensing some shrink advice on pre wedding jitters, given Holly's resistance to marriage before. The subplot involving Rita and her philandering boyfriend in some respects had even more attention paid to it than the actual murder mystery, but did nothing to further the two main plots of wedding and murder. Rita could have had other more relevant roles. And Steve needed to be much less than a cipher through this. He seems to show up to bring dinner and take Holly to bed and that's pretty much it for him. Instead, Rita had her own subplot, Kevin's involvement in the mystery was perfunctory, at best, and Steve didn't seem to have much to do at all. I would have liked to have seen more relation between the characters (these are after all, cozy mysteries) more coordinated plots, more dialogue with each other and much less of the pages of filler. It would have resulted in a better, tighter mystery.

I'm hoping the promise of the first few books gets renewed by the author putting a little more effort into the nuts and bolts of writing. In the meantime, I probably am going to hold back on preordering the hardbacks -- which I regret -- and wait to see. I keep hoping some editor is going to take this author by the hand a little. To put it in words Holly might understand, this was a good writer who -- like a formerly well trained dog whose owner has lapsed on training sessions -- needs to return, reinforce and work on those basics that were practiced in the first books of the series.

This was a cute book, but enough with the detailed descriptions! It was as if the author couldn't come up with enough words to fill her contract, so had to fill in with exhaustive lists of every food item Holly had for dinner, including how it was prepared. I found myself skipping over entire paragraphs of stuff because it added absolutely nothing to the story. In one part there was like a page and a half of her making SALAD for dinner! And reporting on EVERY.SINGLE.TIME she checked her e-mail? Give it a rest! I get that she checks her e-mail frequently!

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book. I managed to get through it to the extremly predictable ending by sheer stubborn will, but I won't be looking for this author's books again.

I agree with the other posters that this book had too much detail and rambling. I wouldn't say that there was any bad writing in the book--it was an easy read and flowed very well.

The detail would have been okay with me if there was a solid mystery to back it all up. Sadly it read more like a long wedding journal where the murders were simply on the news in the background. The main character didn't even actively try to solve the mystery--she just worried about it! The ending was especially awkward with an unbelievable motive and ridiculous ending for the villan.

The dogs were certainly talked about a lot, and how much everyone loved them. Unfortunately their presence contributed nothing to the plot and their activities were only mildly amusing.

I've never read any of Conant's other books and I shudder to think that this was the best. Maybe if you know the characters (in real life or from previous novels) you would enjoy it more but I would strongly discourge it as a first Dog Lover's Mysteries read. I love dogs and mysteries and this book was a disappointment on both accounts.

I devoured all of this writer's books when I first discovered them and it had been quite some time since then when I bought this book. I'm a real sucker for a book with dogs so I dove right in only to become disappointed all too quickly. I didn't remember all the rambling. It is rampant! At times it was almost like reading a text book for all the 'skimming' that I did. I can't say it was a waste of time but some more editing would be appreciated.