Nothing to Fear but Ferrets: A Kendra Ballantyne, Pet Sitter, Mystery [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Linda O. Johnston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2005

Kendra Ballantyne was a high-powered L.A. litigator until scandal forced her resignation. Now she's rented her Hollywood home, moved into the maid's quarters, and jumped at a new job opportunity - as a freelance pet-sitter. Kendra knows that the furry ferrets her tenants keep are illegal, but she didn't realize they could be criminal. Nevertheless, when she finds a corpse in her renters' den all clues point to the playful pets.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Hilarious."
-- Carolyn Hart

Product Details

• Hardcover: 413 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing; 1 edition (November 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597220841
• ISBN-13: 978-1597220842
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,737,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda O. Johnston's first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year. Since then, Linda has published more short stories, plus seventeen romance novels, including the Alpha Force paranormal miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. Alpha Force is a covert military unit of shapeshifters, and the most recent book in the series is ALASKAN WOLF.

Linda is also the author of the new Pet Rescue Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime which debuted in March 2011 with BEAGLEMANIA. The series centers around Lauren Vancouver, the dedicated administrator of a successful private, no-kill animal shelter who also finds herself having to solve murders. In the Pet Rescue Mysteries, "no-kill" means pets, not people! The Pet Rescue series is a spinoff from Linda's Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, mystery series, also from Berkley Prime Crime.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs ferret research, has stereotypical characters and predictable plot, April 13, 2006

By 

Diane Plumley (NY, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing to Fear but Ferrets (Kendra Ballantyne, Petsitter Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

First-research. If you are writing a series about animals, and you are using a species you haven't first hand knowledge of, is it OK to fudge facts assuming your readers won't know or care anyway?

Regarding any research-is it OK to fudge say, facts about the Middle Ages, or how to fire a particular gun, or make up some poison to create a murder method?

My opinion is, if you have a particular subject you are writing about, get the most accurate info about the subject you can, check and recheck your facts, because the reader is trusting the writer's knowledge and takes this info away from the book believing what was described about the subject is truth.

This is particularly important if the entire series is bulit around the premise of a pet sitter.Of course, not many writers are familiar with the ferret species, especially if not ferret owners. But if one is writing an entire plot revolving around ferrets, doesn't it behoove the writer to learn all salient facts?

I started reading this mystery of a pet sitter detective, Ms. Ballantyne and the facts regarding ferret behavior started off dead wrong, and continued along those lines throughout the book.

Granted, the detective lives in CA, ferrets are illegal, and she had to use the Internet to get info about them. Having done that, the detective still thinks it may be possible that ferrets ate a corpse. Not to the bone, mind you, but bites about the entire body. And she wasn't thoroughly convinced they didn't kill the victim to begin with.

Now, my question is, if the detective used the Internet, didn't the author writing the novel also use the Internet for info? And if so, didn't she read enough to understand that ferrets do not "make noise" when frightened-and wouldn't have been frightened by a car crashing through a wall to begin with? More likely, they would want out of the cage to explore the bucket seats. I won't even get into the likelihood of vampire ferrets.

And why does she confuse a domesticated ferret with Black Footed ones (*not* domesticated and not even related to the domesticated ferret) that are a hair's breath from extinction, and *not* roaming around North Dakota--and I'm referring to both species here.

So, research is very poor for this book, something non ferret fanciers may be able to overlook.

Stereotypical characters. The author kept making pointed remarks about a couple of characters' weight-to the point that the unpleasantness of one character's personality was almost defined by her being fat. Someone needs to inform this author that stereotyping people like that in fiction went out with Simon Legree and Little Nell on the railroad tracks.
Other characters, such as the pain in the behind cop, the oh-so-sexy private eye (or law enforcer) love interest, the male best friend pet spa owner, are standard in practically every amateur detective novel. No originallity here.

There are quicker, better ways of summorizing the first book's high points than the redundant recounting of them throughout the first couple of chapters. I felt as though I already read the book after the multiple references.

The plot isn't original or interesting-other than the idea of Bela Legosi ferrets.

I usually don't critize crime fiction I don't like. It is a matter of taste in many instances. But the severe lack of facts, plus irritating characters and plot, compelled me to take a stand for once.

Diane Plumley
Former Editor--Dastardly Deeds

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing . . ., February 8, 2006

By 

Lisa A. Daley (North Carlina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing to Fear but Ferrets (Kendra Ballantyne, Petsitter Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

I guess if I didn't actually own ferrets I would have enjoyed this book more. Ferrets are probably the most misunderstood domestic animal around and suggesting that a 2lb ferret (albet 4 of them)could kill a grown man and eat his face off is just plain absurd, and does not help the image of these wonderful animals. I know about literary license but pleeese! If you're going to write a book with an animal as the prime suspect the least you can do is a little research. Okay, I admit that I was expecting too much from a paperback mystery, but it would have been nice if she explored the ferrets personalites a little more. I mean, if it was called Nothing to Fear But Bunnies I would expect some insight on bunnies! As for as the rest of the book . . . I liked Kendra's character but I had a hard time getting past the ridiculous ferret face-eating plot and the whole story seemed to drag.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Skip this one - you can do better!, May 26, 2006

By 

J. Steffes (Merrill, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nothing to Fear but Ferrets (Kendra Ballantyne, Petsitter Mysteries, No. 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

Wow, this book is just BAD BAD BAD.

Not only does the author obviously know NOTHING about ferrets (very poor attempt at research, she had many facts just plain wrong), but the writing in this book is also pretty darn poor. I have read many other teen books (I can only hope this was intended for young teens, not adult fiction!) and this one is definitely more poorly written than average. I could only read the first 17 pages before I just couldn't take anymore - I had to skim the rest. The characters are silly, vacant and poorly written - I found myself rolling my eyes and groaning more times than I could count! The fact that this book has an average rating of four stars is even worse - if THIS book has a four-star average, what good is the rating of books in general!?

Overall, I got the impression this book was written over a weekend - and that includes research time. Not worth the effort - if you like animals and want to read young teen animal books, skip this one and try Bunnicula or The Black Stallion instead.