[.ca] Animal Appetite (ISBN 042520250X)

stuffy but nice:
I've read Susan Conant's books from the beginning but one thing I've noticed about her writing: It has gotten very stuffy, with frequent lectures. Holly has become a one dimentional character who is obsessed with nothing but dogs (I'm obsessed with dogs but even I have other likes!). What happened to Holly's love of the Celtics/Larry Bird? What happened to her Dad? A good mystery but I'd have to say that Conant is getting to be too lecture-prone and her character development is awful.

Spot-on dog show info with a mystery death or two attached!:
Susan Conant is the dog show lover's writer. Every description of anything doggy in her book is 100% right on. Her credibility extends to the mystery as she investigates three different murders, one incident that happened to "savages" in the 1600's, another that took place 18 years ago, and the recent suspicious death of a Harvard professor. If you love dogs, dog shows, obedience trials and the like, you're going to love this book. The mystery is just another treat, like frosting on the cake.

Preachy and boring:
This is the first Susan Conant book I've read, and I guarantee it will be the last. I bought it because I liked the cover, I have two dogs and I love mysteries. But she preached on and on about how to buy, show and live with dogs and I got offended and annoyed. I don't need a fiction paperback to tell me how to raise my dogs - that's why I took them to obedience school for three years! I could have overlooked the "I know SOOOO much more than you about dogs" attitude if the mystery (either one of them) had been interesting, but I was bored stiff by the time I finished. The only redeeming quality of this book was the description of the way the dogs behaved. That, at least, was interesting (you would hope someone as obsessed with dogs as Susan apparantly is could at least make their descriptions entertaining, and they were, somewhat.) I'll stick to other authors that don't try to convert me to the dog fan club. I'm already a member.

Dogs and colonial history--Yeah!:
Susan Conant has written a series of books in which murders are solved by a very unlikely person. The "detective" in Ms. Conant's books is a dog lover with the unlikely name of Holly Winter. Holly makes a living writing for a dog magazine. Holly's life centers around her two Alaskan malamutes. I am not a "dog lover" but I have enjoyed meeting the malamutes and I have enjoyed in other books reading about the strange world of dog shows. In Animal Appetite, Holly investigates the murder of a pubisher who died at his desk 18 years before the start of the tale. Concurrently, Holly is researching an actual historical event in which a woman who had been captured by native Americans managed to escape (killing several of her captors in the process). I enjoyed the combination of colonial history and wry humor aimed at dog fanciers and Harvard professors. I read Susan Conant because I enjoy the world she creates and the vivid way she brings dogs to life on the printed page. Don't expect the wild humor of Susan Evanovich or the well crafted puzzles of vintage Agatha Christy; expect an enjoyable romp with two wonderful malamutes.

An addictive series!:
Holly Winter, a writer for DOG'S LIFE magazine, makes a bet with her friend and neighbor Rita (a psychotherapist) that she can indeed write something that has nothing to do with dogs whatsoever. Thus, Holly begins research on Hannah Duston, who, in 1697 was captured by Indians--then killed her captors and returned home. At the same time she is learning about Hannah Duston, however, Holly is also finding out about John Winter Andrews, who died eighteen years ago (was it suicide or murder? the case was never solved)--and owned a Golden Retriever, the same breed of dog Holly's family has bred for decades. Surely there must be a kinship link of some sort, and Holly is determined to find out what really happened. Holly is a fun person to hang out with--smart, smart-mouthed, and with a smart choice of companions: her two Alaskan Malamutes, Kimi and Rowdy. Think Kinsey Millhone transplanted from Santa Teresa, California to Cambridge, Massachusetts and immersed in the world of dogs. Holly's other friends--her lover (and vet) Steve, her next door neighbor (and homicide detective) Kevin, and Rita--are almost as engaging as the assorted canines who show up in the novel. Be warned: the Holly Winter series is addictive! This reviewer read ten of them (of which this is number ten) in ten days. All are stronger on dogs than on the mystery elements--which is not to say the mystery elements are weak, they aren't--but that's just fine by me. It isn't necessary to read these novels in order, so grab the first one you can find (and all the others you can put your hands on) and dig in for a tour of New England, dog shows and obedience trials, colonial history... and, oh yes... rats. Kimberly Borrowdale, Under the Covers