The Dog Who Knew Too Much [Mass Market Paperback]

Carol Lea Benjamin (Author)

Book Description

The key to a beautiful woman's tragic death is locked in a dog's broken heart.

P.I. Rachel Alexander is stepping into a dead woman's life. Hired by the young t'ai chi teacher's grieving parents, Rachel is determined to find out why their apparently happy daughter jumped from the window of her Greenwich Village martial arts studio. Wearing Lisa's clothes, studying with her mentor, meeting her friends, provoking her enemies, Rachel soon learns that even with her pit bull, Dashiell, at her side, the path to enlightenment is a dangerous place to be.

With the answer Rachel seeks as difficult to fathom as a Zen riddle, yet as close by as the victim's sad-eyed Akita, one truth begins to unfold: Lisa never would have abandoned her dog without a cruel push. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Benjamin's second series mystery fulfills the promise of her debut, This Dog for Hire (LJ 11/1/96). A wealthy couple hire Rachel Alexander, a free-spirited sleuth who lives in Greenwich Village with her pit bull, Dashiell, to find out why their apparently happy daughter jumped out a fifth-floor window. Rachel finds the answer (murder, of course) by "assuming" the dead woman's life: wearing her clothes, learning t'ai chi, and meeting her friends. Crisp, clean, and focused, with a great heroine and canines; an enjoyable read.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Why mess with success? Dog-trainer/p.i. Rachel Alexander's second case is so much like her fine debut (This Dog for Hire, 1996) that she could sue herself for plagiarism. Again there's a mysterious death--this time t'ai chi instructor Lisa Jacobs's alleged suicide--witnessed only by the victim's dog; again the stricken survivors are looking for an explanation for the inexplicable (why would got-it-all Lisa leave a note saying, ``I'm sorry. Lisa,'' and take a header out her window?); again Rachel hits the mean streets accompanied by her pit bull Dash. ``You won't learn anything worthwhile about Lisa by asking questions,'' Lisa's mentor and former boss Avi Ashkenasi tells Rachel. ``You must walk in her shoes.'' So as Rachel sweats to figure out which of Lisa's friends and students would've been most unhinged by her plans to move to China--and sweats too at the t'ai chi studio, the swimming pool, and the gym where she goes to ask all the questions she shouldn't--she wears Lisa's perfume and bracelet as well as her shoes, carries her keys, and beds her lover, half-Chinese swim coach Paul Wilcox. But her attempts to isolate a prime suspect fail when the front-runner gets killed--just like last time--clearing the way for another ton of moondust and (a sad innovation) an abrupt and arbitrary climax. Rachel's fans are advised to sit out her case of second- novel blues and wait for next year. If you missed her first, though, you may want to check out the most helpful canine sleuth since Asta. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Dell (September 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440226376
• ISBN-13: 978-0440226376
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.5 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #577,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but doesn't live up to its' predecessor, September 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dog Who Knew Too Much (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Unable to accept that her beloved daughter Lisa, who seemed to have it all, committed suicide, Marsha Jacobs hires private investigator Rachel Alexander to investigate what really happened to her child. Rachel and her pit bull Dash walk the streets of Manhattan in an attempt to learn the truth. Rachel soon receives some sound advice that she heeds from Lisa's former boss, who tells her that in order to learn what happened to the victim, "you must walk in her shoes."

Rachel Lisa soon copies Lisa's lifestyle by adopting all of her activities and even moving into Lisa's apartment. Rachel studies the martial arts at the same dojo that Lisa attended. She joins Lisa's health club and eats in the same Greenwich Village restaurants that the deceased frequented. Rachel begins to understand the victim and concludes a murder did, indeed, occur. However, Rachel has not gotten any closer to uncovering the killer's identity than when she first started on the case.

Readers will enjoy the Rachel and Dash mystery series as the lead protagonists make a charming pair of detectives. The tours of Manhattan are an added bonus and the story line is very exciting. However, THE DOG WHO KNEW TOO MUCH tends to repeat much of the same ground covered by its predecessor (THIS DOG FOR HIRE), thereby leaving readers of the first novel with the feeling that they knew too much going into this tale. Still, Carol Lea Benjamin shows much promise as writer, who, hopefully, will widen her interesting couple's adventures in the next installment.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't let this book be your introduction to Dash mysteries.., February 28, 2003

By 

Tuffy (Kentucky, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dog Who Knew Too Much (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This reviewer is grateful that this book was not her first Dash mystery, because it would have been her last. Ms. Benjamin is too talented a writer to be judged on the basis of what one can only hope is a major and temporary lapse in judgment. If you're looking to try her work, go straight to her first book. In this book, Rachel Alexander comes off as not very likeable: wearing the victim's clothes and jewelry, sleeping with the victim's boyfriend, trying to live the victim's life....all of this has Rachel coming across as a rather sick voyeuristic woman...In fact, her treatment of the victim's boyfriend makes her a rather cruel and callous one. This reviewer does not understand the purpose behind having the victim's dog witness the crime or how the dog even figures into the plot at all. And not enough Dash in this book! Dash is but a secondary decoration in this book...and Rachel even goes out into a dangerous situation in the dead of night, and leaves him behind!!! The only good things I can say about the book is the writing style is good and you will be kept guessing as to what happened in the victim's last moment until the book's end; the problem is that by that point, you'll not care if Rachel herself winds up sharing the victim's fate. Ms. Benjamin is a better writer than this; her character needs rehabilitation after this book.....The readership deserves more Dash and less trash.....This reviewer's advice: Only resort to this Dash mystery when you've read all of the others......

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written mystery, insight into "dog's world" is a bonus, February 19, 1998

By 

Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dog Who Knew Too Much (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The narrator is a female dog-trainer turned private detective. The victim is her cousin, who apparently jumped out the window of the t'ai chi dojo where she was the favored apprentice, and an Akita is witness. Everyone has a motive and opportunity; who did it? The author manages a neat ending without turning the dojo into the center of an international conspiracy to smuggle nuclear weapons or whatever...