Customer Reviews

The Wicked Flea (Dog Lover's Mysteries)

5 star:		(9)
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3 star:		(2)
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It has been a long time since the last Holly Winter mystery. When last we saw her, she was suffering from both a head injury and heartbreak. Her vet and lover had married someone else and she was injured during another of her escapades. Rita has recommended a psychiatrist to help heal her mind and body and her elderly friend Ceci asks her help in solving a problem at the dog park. A dog owner with a vicious Golden is making things difficult for all of them. Holly solves the problem temporarily, and then a murderer solves it permanently. Holly helps to solve the murder.

This is the best Conant mystery in a long time. Conant has taken the time to add more dog elements to the mystery and as usual she makes them work brilliantly. The dogs and the mystery blend wonderfully, so this novel should appeal to all readers, not just dog nuts. The author understands dogs and murder mystery like very few others and I always enjoy her dog mysteries, even though the previous two were more mystery and less dog. They were markedly less enjoyable, and I am glad she has returned to the previous formula.

This book, 14th in the Holly Winter series, carries over many of the characters from her previous books--Holly, her vet and love interest, Steve; her friends Rita (tenant and psychotherapist) and Kevin (the cop next door); her courtesy aunts Ceci and Althea; the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Newton; and last but not least the well drawn Malamutes Rowdy and Kimi. The identity of the killer is genuinely mysterious and the victim's life is explored in detail. Much intelligent information about dogs, dog shows, and dog obedience is imparted but the book is never preachy-Holly is just completely obsessed and shares her obsessions with the reader.
I believe that a reader who hadn't read any of the preceding books would enjoy this as much as those of us who have read all fourteen.

Does Holly get Steve back? Does he at least dump the dog-hating witch? Does Holly recover from her concussion? Does Ceci get a new Newfie? Is there really a dangerous pervert haunting the dog park? What's wrong with the golden retriever at the dog park? Is Holly's new therapist any good? How's Leah doing at Harvard? What's Kevin up to? How great a dog is Rowdy really? Does Kimi finish her championship? Some of these questions get answered, just enough to keep us satisfied until the next Holly/Rowdy/Kimi/Leah adventure comes out, but enough of these questions go unanswered to make us eagerly antisipate the next book Conant comes out with. It didn't take me long to finish, but the solution to the mystery came as a complete but pleasant surprise.

Holly Winter, proud owner of two beloved malamutes Kimi and Rowdy, is going through some hard times. She is recovering from a case of amnesia and related neurological problems, while trying to adjust to the fact that her long time lover and vet, Steve Delaney, married somebody else. To add injury to insult, Steve's wife is somebody Kelly absolutely despises for good reasons.

To get her mind off her personal problems, Holly spends some time with a group of pet owners and their dogs in a beautiful park in Newton, Mass. One of the members, Sylvia has a golden retriever named Zsa-Zsa who is rambunctious to the point of being dangerous. It is a shock when Holly and some other member of the group find Sylvia dead in the park, killed by a bullet in her chest. Holly goes into her sleuth mode and tries to ferret out the perpetrator.

It has been a long time since Susan Conant has written a book about everyone's favorite malamutes but the poignant mystery was well worth the wait. The relationship the heroine and her canines share is precious to behold while Holly's sense of justice encourages her to take risks that most people would not. THE WICKED FLEA is a delightful whimsical and humorous mystery that shows off the attributes of humans and canines that are rather similar in nature.

Harriet Klausner

Don't get me wrong. I'm a confirmed cat person. But a dog-loving friend who's never read my cat mysteries mentioned Susan Conant. Out of curiosity, I picked up THE WICKED FLEA. I think I'm hooked.

Susan Conant tells a good story, and she tells it well. Her Holly Winter is chatty, opinionated, feisty, and downright likeable. I can't wait to devour another Conant book, rather like Kimi the Malamute and the rat-tail-infested french fries. [That's all I'm going to say about that particularly satisfying sub-plot].

So, cat-lovers of the world, let's step for once out of our self-imposed cat-book limitations and read a GASP!! doG-centered book. It's worth taking the leap.

After being badly disappointed in the previous installment, I was hesitant.

And wonderfully surprised to find that Ms. Conant has returned! Even though her protaganist holds a dim view of "pet owners", I still really enjoy the characterization. This book seems to have a lighter touch on the personal troubles Holly is facing; something I prefer. Worth the risk!

Another excellent tale by Susan Conant. I so very much enjoy this series. I will start reading her other series soon - as I hear now she has one for cats as well.

I felt that the last couple of books in this series weren't as strong as what they were, but this book puts Holly, Rowdy and Kimi right back on track. Holly is sans Steve, and she is convincing herself that she doesn't miss him. She gets involved with some dog walkers, and Rowdy and her meet a vicious Golden Retriever (that's an oxymoron isn't it). When the owner of the Golden is found shot, Holly finds herself trying to find out who the murderer is. There are lots of new quirky characters, and we see some of the old ones too. The book moves along swiftly, and I enjoyed immenseley

Holly used to be fun to read. Her enthusiastic gushing, where she name dropped everything from trainers to dog food, might have been naive in some respects, but at least it was amusing and upbeat and her descriptions of dog behavior was spot on. But then the series took a negative turn, and love of dogs seemed to be superceded by digust of humans. The villians didn't just do bad deeds, but their homes, clothes, hygiene and personal habits were described in unpleasant details. I keep reading the series, hoping it will upturn again, but the negativity continued into this book, overwhelming the enthusiasm and the love of dogs. What was once just a few paragraphs from every chapter, has now taken over. The action takes place in a dog park, and a shrink's office, but neither the victim, nor the villians, nor many of the other characters, including most of the dogs are palatable. I was doggedly reading toward the end, for there was one small subplot that had value in it and that spoke of the old enthusiastic happy Holly, the description of Rowdy being bred to Emma, unfortunately just a few email asides. The various other plots wound their unredeeming ways, victims, villians and side characters no more likable or interesting at the end than at the beginning. But when Rowdy's puppies are finally born, the Holly who seemed lately buried in carpy nastiness broke down and cried, wailed as she put it, for the puppy she could not have. That catharsis was the only genuine writing and emotion in the book. The rest seemed makework but this made me almost like Holly again. Write more of that.

Even though the thought of owning a Malamute sends my husband, my cats, and my poor terrier into fits of terror, I just can't seem to get enough of Rowdy, Kimi, and even some of the "people" characters. Everytime I spot a Mal, I can't control my urge to ask for permission to get my hands on one. I sneer at people who use the work "huskies". I suspect Conant of using some kind of Harvard shrink tricks to turn sane people into Malamute crazies. Hopefully, Holly will come to her senses and hold on to Steve this time. The dogs deserve a great vet.