[.ca] Stud Rites (ISBN 0425201597)

You can always depend on Susan Conant for a good read.:
I count Susan Conant amoung my favorite mystery writers. Her obsession with all things canine combined with some unusual crime scenarios make her books a treat.

Murder + Malamutes + Mystery = Stud Rites:
Nikki and Rowdy two playful malamutes are entered into a National Specialty Show. Holly Winter tries to figure out the murders and keep to the malamutes. This is a breath taking book!

Good Fight:
Never mind the Kirkus review. The dog facts weren't boring and I'm a cat lover who merely likes dogs. I liked the analogies that the author used in order to help those of us who aren't dog fanatics to understand the feelings of those who are. I chuckled and cringed over Holly's reunion with the man who had captured her heart when she was but a girl (and mother was right). Actually, I did a lot of chuckling and cringing during this book. It's a pity that no one thought to enter an unedited version of the final judging video to one of those amateur video shows because it probably would have won a prize. (Heaven knows that the donated lamp probably would have made a worthy entry in the Ugliest Lamp contest.) The bride's father probably would have envied the lucky dad in book/film version(s) of "Father of the Bride." I'm suprised the poor man didn't have a heart attack before it was all over. (Got a good chuckle out of Holly's unspoken appraisal of the groom, not to mention her opinion of a woman who would marry a man who's allergic to dogs.) I would have been more upset about the nasty way two fat characters were depicted if I hadn't already known from the author's e-mail response to my complaint to her publisher \oover *Bloodlines* and *Black Ribbon*\c that she was horrified when a friend pointed that out to her, apologizes, and hopes that her three latest books are not offensive. I stayed up until 11:30 to finish this book. I could have been in bed an hour earlier if I hadn't kept looking up at the TV to see if Scully and Mulder were doing anything exciting for the "X-Files" 2000 season finale. That was a mistake.

Bitingly clever:
This was one of my favorite Conant books. The prose is particularly well written, and bitingly sarcastic at times. I particularly appreciate S. Conant's emphasis on breed rescue, and how wonderful those dogs can be. The characters in her book are all just exaggerated enough so you can really get a feel for their personalities, and her descriptions of the back-biting and gossip that goes on at dog shows had me in stitches! If you like this series, I think you will love this one!

An all-around good read!:
Probably my favorite of Susan Conant's Holly Winter novels. Realisticly funny characters that had me snikering ("Women who run with vets?") It was also a good whodunit, having me second gussing who the killer really was. I also am a dog show addict, and the events that take place not far from unrealistic (well, I have never seen anyone hold a dog at gunpoint, but hey, it could be done).