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Rating: 
Summary: A mystery and dog lover?s delight
Review: Melanie is leaving her son behind in Connecticut with his father while she and her Aunt Peg travel to Maryland to attend the annual Poodle Club of America event. Melanie is going to show her puppy Eve while her aunt is going to make sure everyone knows their job. Melanie's lover Sam Driver is also going to be at the dog show and Melanie hopes to have some quality time alone with him.Aunt Peg ropes her niece into helping the Boone Sisters, Edith Jean and Betty Jean into selling raffles. Although the sisters are eleven months apart in age, they look like identical twins. When Melanie walks Eve in the designated area of the hotel, she hears a scream and when she and others look to see what happened they find Betty Jean lying dead on the ground. When the police start investigating, they discover she was murdered but this time Melanie vows not to get involved, a promise that doesn't last the full week of the conference. There are plenty of suspects who could have wanted the victim dead but readers won't be able to figure out this complex, multi-layered who done it until the author is ready to reveal the identity of the killer. Members of the audience may have fragments of the solution but Laurien Berenson holds back one shocking, unbelievable fact that changes the whole picture and the best part is that the clue is hidden in plain sight. BEST IN SHOW is a mystery and dog lover's delight. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A mystery and dog lover¿s delight
Review: Melanie is leaving her son behind in Connecticut with his father while she and her Aunt Peg travel to Maryland to attend the annual Poodle Club of America event. Melanie is going to show her puppy Eve while her aunt is going to make sure everyone knows their job. Melanie's lover Sam Driver is also going to be at the dog show and Melanie hopes to have some quality time alone with him. Aunt Peg ropes her niece into helping the Boone Sisters, Edith Jean and Betty Jean into selling raffles. Although the sisters are eleven months apart in age, they look like identical twins. When Melanie walks Eve in the designated area of the hotel, she hears a scream and when she and others look to see what happened they find Betty Jean lying dead on the ground. When the police start investigating, they discover she was murdered but this time Melanie vows not to get involved, a promise that doesn't last the full week of the conference. There are plenty of suspects who could have wanted the victim dead but readers won't be able to figure out this complex, multi-layered who done it until the author is ready to reveal the identity of the killer. Members of the audience may have fragments of the solution but Laurien Berenson holds back one shocking, unbelievable fact that changes the whole picture and the best part is that the clue is hidden in plain sight. BEST IN SHOW is a mystery and dog lover's delight. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Another Champion
Review: The latest installment of Laurien Berenson's Melanie Travis series takes place at PCA, what the cognoscenti of the purebred dog world call the Poodle Club of America's National Specialty. This is arguably the ultimate breed specialty show, and I was thrilled to see the similarities to my own club's version and to see PCA as the setting. If you're a dog show insider, you will recognize some of the prominent people and sympathize with Melanie as she survives the week at the National (at least I do, our National is beginning to take up 9 days). If you're not, Laurien Berenson gives you enough information to clue you in on the inner workings of a breed club, AKC shows and dog people without turning the book into a primer on the subject. The mystery is a bit simplified, but that's just a quibble because the rest of the story is very engaging. I'm looking forward to the further adventures of Melanie, Sam, Aunt Peg, et al.
Rating:
Summary: Murder at the Nationals
Review: The PCA (Poodle Club of America) is having their annual dog show in Maryland. A national specialty is a huge event that draws people from all over the country. Naturally Aunt Peg is involved in the planning and Melanie is drafted into helping out with the raffle. The two odd sisters that run the raffle are interesting, they have a dog that is a contender for the best in show prize, although another exhibitor will do anything to stop them. One of the sisters is found dead on the grounds of the hotel, and whether or not it is murder is up to the police, and Melanie to decide and solve. This latest in the Melanie Travis series was alot of fun. The descriptions of a large dog show are right on, down to the snobbish attitude of the breed exhibitors towards the obedience competitors (Terry makes a particularly nasty and inappropriate remark here, but some breed people are like that, thank goodness not all). Melanie and Sam's relationship is touched on, nice to see it back on track. The solution to the mystery is not readily apparent, lots of red herrings. All in all, another great mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Murder at the Nationals
Review: The PCA (Poodle Club of America) is having their annual dog show in Maryland. A national specialty is a huge event that draws people from all over the country. Naturally Aunt Peg is involved in the planning and Melanie is drafted into helping out with the raffle. The two odd sisters that run the raffle are interesting, they have a dog that is a contender for the best in show prize, although another exhibitor will do anything to stop them. One of the sisters is found dead on the grounds of the hotel, and whether or not it is murder is up to the police, and Melanie to decide and solve. This latest in the Melanie Travis series was alot of fun. The descriptions of a large dog show are right on, down to the snobbish attitude of the breed exhibitors towards the obedience competitors (Terry makes a particularly nasty and inappropriate remark here, but some breed people are like that, thank goodness not all). Melanie and Sam's relationship is touched on, nice to see it back on track. The solution to the mystery is not readily apparent, lots of red herrings. All in all, another great mystery.
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