Author: Laurien Berenson

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.

Published: 2008-09-01

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0758235631

Pine Ridge Canine Care Center. A place where pampered pooches go to kick back, get primped, and watch a little TV in luxurious individual accommodations. To Melanie Travis, it all seems a bit much--and a most unlikely setting for a murder. But when the day care center's co-owner turns up dead in his office, that's just what she finds... Melanie Travis thought her sleuthing days were behind her. She has a new baby to take care of--not to mention five Standard Poodles--and Aunt Peg is getting Davey ready for his debut as a junior showman. These days, the closest Melanie gets to detective work is scoping out the scene at the local doggie day center for her friend Alice Brickman. As Melanie learns, it's a dog's life at the Pine Ridge Canine Care Center--and life is good. The dogs are living large with a team of groomers and handlers at their bark and call. Everyone seems blissfully happy. Everyone canine, that is. For Melanie soon discovers there are some simmering resentments among the Pine Ridge staff and when Steve Pine, the center's charming, good-looking co-owner, is found shot to death on the floor of his office, there's no shortage of suspects. His sister Candy stands to inherit their lucrative doggie day care operation. His neighbor, Adam Busch, still blames Steve for paving the way for the other businesses that now exist in the once quiet, all-residential town. And then there's Lila Harrington, the disgruntled client who wanted to sue Steve following an embarrassing "incident" involving a Shih Tzu and a Beagle mix. And lastly, the string of female customers Steve bedded and jilted. But which of these suspects was desperate enough to commit murder? With the police at a loss for leads, it's now up to Melanie to go undercover and sniff out a killer whose secrets lie buried in a dog's paradise that's proving to be anything but. . .