Murder at the Puppy Fest

[cornerofmadness]

Murder at the Puppy Fest by Laurien Berenson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I picked it up at a library sale not realizing until I came here that it was #20 in a series but I suspected it. It really shows. I doubt this would have been published from a newbie. Melanie is a breeder/shower of world class standard poodles as is her officious Aunt Peg and Melanie's young son is an up and comer (so disappointment #1 was all the non-poodles, dalmations and any other dog actually IN the book represented on the cover).

The book opens with animal abuse (it ends well, no worries there) when her son Davey sees someone whip a dog out of a moving car. They stop and rescue the dog and take it home (Aunt Peg proves to be the worst really, annoyed that they're keeping (in theory) this non-poodle instead of taking it to the pound).

Segue into the titular puppy fest, thrown by a Bill Gates/Elon Musk level billionaire but with a good heart at least for animals and women. Leo Brody is a philanthropist for people and animals and gasp wants his nine kids to work for their own money. He has had multiple marriages and has a lady friend desperate to make him hers.

She's the one who Melanie finds standing over Leo's body and doesn't want her to call the police. And we go off the rails right here. The cops entire investigation of Brody is basically eh he ate some peanut containing cookies and died of his allergy, accident, oh well. In spite of the fact his epipen that he always had is missing and that he never ate foods he didn't know. So....the cops are idiots?

Aunt Peg and one of the Brody kids (i.e. an adult older than Melanie probably or at least her age as there are grandkids who are teenagers) decide it wasn't an accident and set Melanie to investigate. Here's where it gets eyerolling. The entire investigation is just Melanie talking to the nine kids and some grand kids...that's it.

That is not that exciting. It's something the police could/would/SHOULD have done in a day or two. I'm not even getting into the ridiculous ending which was enough to make me distrustful of how Berenson ends her other mysteries because while this could end this way in the real world (i.e. open ended) most mystery readers do prefer to see justice served at the end.



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