A Dog Lover’s Mystery Series

“[Susan] Conant might be the dog lovers’ answer to Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who series.”—Rocky Mountain News

Canine-loving detective Holly Winter is a columnist for Dog’s Life magazine. She thinks a week at Waggin’ Tail, a camp for canines in the scenic Maine woods, will be a vacation in pet heaven. So does Rowdy, her champion malamute—especially when there are pooches galore: mixed breeds, Pekes, cairn terriers, Labradors, shelties, and a gorgeous mastiff pup. But upon Holly’s arrival at the camp, things swiftly go to the dogs. Instead of the advertised gourmet food, there’s olive loaf and soggy pudding. The human campers are given to nasty back-stabbing. And Holly receives a black-edged card consoling her for the loss of her dog. Is this someone’s sick idea of a joke?

Suddenly Waggin’ Tail seems like the summer camp from hell. Then a dog owner turns up dead in a freak accident. The probable cause? The victim’s own dog! Holly suspects a four-footed frame-up and with Rowdy sets out to find the real culprit. She’s on the scent and closing fast—which makes her the perfect target for a killer whose bite is definitely worse than his bark.

Holly Winter’s a Dog’s Life columnist on the wrong side of thirty, a canine-loving detective sniffing out crime on the streets of Cambridge. Holly is a dog’s best friend—and a murderer’s worst enemy . . . 

They might be less famous than guide dogs for the blind, but hearing dogs are no less invaluable to their owners. Holly Winter discovers this well-kept secret when she interviews Stephanie Benson, a hearing-impaired priest, and her canine companion, Ruffly. A hardworking, reliable mixed-breed, Ruffly lends an ear with ringing telephones, doorbells, smoke alarms, and the other everyday sounds on which Stephanie’s livelihood—and life—depend.

Ruffly and the rector have just moved into the house of Holly’s recently deceased friend, Morris Lamb, whose life-loving and dog-adoring ways left no clue to his sudden and untimely death. Then Ruffly begins tuning in to something more than mere mortals can hear. And when Holly follows the dog’s lead, she picks up the unmistakable sound . . . of murder.

“[Susan] Conant’s readers—with ears up and alert eye—eagerly await her next.”—Kirkus Reviews

When a local vet and a pampered pet disappear, Holly Winter and her veterinarian lover Steve Delaney go to the exclusive Cambridge Dog Training Club to investigate.

Normally Holly winter wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like Puppy Luv — a mall pet shop that’s no doubt an outlet for the puppy mill industry and a hotbed of forged papers, broken promises and mistreated animals.  But a hot tip on a malamute pup suddenly has Holly charging to the rescue and panting to put the owner out of business.  Trouble is, she’s not the only one who has a bone to pick with Diane Sweet.  in a matter of hours the puupy love proprietess is gruesomely murdered.

When Holly links the killing with the disappearance of another malamute — an adorable live wire named Missy — she digs up startling evidence that soon leads her into the fiercely competitive and deadly underworld of dog breeding.  A place where her biggest fears are realized.  And where her animal instincts are all that can save her.