Muzzled won the Poisoned Pen Press's 2013 Discover Mystery Contest, and I can see why. The mystery is a corker. When the killer was revealed, I could've slapped myself upside the head because the clues were there from the beginning. I'm going to blame my lack of prowess on two things: Eileen Brady's wonderful sense of humor, and the way she weaves the life of a veterinarian into her story.
One of my pet peeves about so many "niche" cozy mysteries-- those books with themes like knitting or running a B&B or cooking for example-- is the fact that the theme is just a thin veneer to hook the reader and has very little or nothing to do with the action in the book. If I pick up one of these books and the main character is supposed to be a glass blower, she'd better be able to convince me that she knows how to create something in glass. Same goes with knitting or any of the dozens of themes (or hooks) that are out there. That is certainly no problem in Muzzled. Eileen Brady was a vet for many years and still has a hand in the business. There is no doubt in your mind that Kate's a vet because of all the house calls she makes.
Make no mistake, those house calls can be a riot, whether Kate's saving a hamster from the maw of a vacuum cleaner or meeting a woman who dresses like her Chihuahua. These scenes provide verisimilitude, they provide humor, they provide knowledge on pet care and on the characters in the book, and they provide clues to the mystery. I enjoyed every single house call Kate Turner made.
Kate is a dedicated vet who's been experiencing a bit of man trouble. She's strong, she's smart, and it seems almost everyone who meets her thinks she's Meryl Streep. In fact her resemblance to Streep is a running joke throughout the book. If there's any problem at all with the book, it's that Kate is so strong a character that the others pale in comparison. I'm looking forward to Kate's next investigation so I can reacquaint myself with those other characters.
Naturally I have no interest at all in seeing Kate, following along on those house calls, or reading another first-in-show mystery....
One of my pet peeves about so many "niche" cozy mysteries-- those books with themes like knitting or running a B&B or cooking for example-- is the fact that the theme is just a thin veneer to hook the reader and has very little or nothing to do with the action in the book. If I pick up one of these books and the main character is supposed to be a glass blower, she'd better be able to convince me that she knows how to create something in glass. Same goes with knitting or any of the dozens of themes (or hooks) that are out there. That is certainly no problem in Muzzled. Eileen Brady was a vet for many years and still has a hand in the business. There is no doubt in your mind that Kate's a vet because of all the house calls she makes.
Make no mistake, those house calls can be a riot, whether Kate's saving a hamster from the maw of a vacuum cleaner or meeting a woman who dresses like her Chihuahua. These scenes provide verisimilitude, they provide humor, they provide knowledge on pet care and on the characters in the book, and they provide clues to the mystery. I enjoyed every single house call Kate Turner made.
Kate is a dedicated vet who's been experiencing a bit of man trouble. She's strong, she's smart, and it seems almost everyone who meets her thinks she's Meryl Streep. In fact her resemblance to Streep is a running joke throughout the book. If there's any problem at all with the book, it's that Kate is so strong a character that the others pale in comparison. I'm looking forward to Kate's next investigation so I can reacquaint myself with those other characters.
Naturally I have no interest at all in seeing Kate, following along on those house calls, or reading another first-in-show mystery....
Dr. Kate Turner is a veterinarian covering for an older, vacationing veterinarian for a few months. She's a friendly, low-key, extremely competent vet who enjoys the animals and cares for them with love and respect. I haven't ever known a vet who did most of his or her work making house calls, but that's the way Dr. Kate's business works. It makes for a much more interesting story as she deals with pets and their owners on their own turf.
There's a murder mystery here, of course, but much of what made the book satisfying was Dr. Kate's day-to-day practice of caring for distressed pets and skillfully handling the not-always-reasonable pet owners. After a heart-warming opening scene with an imperiled hamster, Kate's second call puts her into a crime scene. She discovers the bodies in an apparent murder-suicide of an elderly couple whose lives centered around their kennel of champion Cavalier King Charles spaniels. After summoning the police, Dr. Kate helps round up the 27 ultra-valuable dogs that have been running around loose.
As the days go by, Kate learns more and more about the deceased dog breeders, who were not well liked in their community or in the viciously competitive dog show world. Kate begins to believe they may have been murdered; there is certainly no shortage of suspects with excellent motives.
We meet a womanizing shop and café owner; a fierce-looking burly biker who loves his overweight, almost feral cat; a conniving competitive breeder; and the couple's estranged daughter, who is so greedily cash-hungry that she sells everything as quickly as possible. Any of them-and a variety of others-could be the killer.
Dr. Kate learns more as she makes her daily rounds of the county's animal population. As she asks questions and tries to figure out what might have happened, someone gets nervous and puts the doc in deadly peril.
The eventual resolution is logical and satisfying. Too often, these mysteries have a scene at the end where the nosy amateur sleuth does something incredibly stupid to put herself in jeopardy. Not here. Every plot development is natural and logical. The story proceeds in a relaxed manner to its inevitable conclusion. Not everyone likes that kind of story. I love them.
Dr. Kate is likeable, intelligent, and gently clever with the distressed animals. Anyone would like her. She teaches us interesting things about animals-who knew you had to trim the toenails of parrots? She visits a couple of dog shows, but doesn't present them as an exposition of obsessed lunatics, as some authors have done. I also was greatly pleased not to find a lot of people in the story who think their pets are just as important as people. That said, we meet and grow to understand and love a number of pets.
This is a calm, relaxed, informative, and pleasant mystery with a few moments of tense suspense. I look forward with pleasure to the next installment in the series.
Note: This book was provided to me at no cost in order to write a review. This did not affect in any way my opinion of the book. (I have received several books that I did NOT like. The publishers allowed as how maybe they didn't care if I failed to review them. So I saved myself some work and did not write formal reviews, although I have rated them and made brief notes here on PBS.)
There's a murder mystery here, of course, but much of what made the book satisfying was Dr. Kate's day-to-day practice of caring for distressed pets and skillfully handling the not-always-reasonable pet owners. After a heart-warming opening scene with an imperiled hamster, Kate's second call puts her into a crime scene. She discovers the bodies in an apparent murder-suicide of an elderly couple whose lives centered around their kennel of champion Cavalier King Charles spaniels. After summoning the police, Dr. Kate helps round up the 27 ultra-valuable dogs that have been running around loose.
As the days go by, Kate learns more and more about the deceased dog breeders, who were not well liked in their community or in the viciously competitive dog show world. Kate begins to believe they may have been murdered; there is certainly no shortage of suspects with excellent motives.
We meet a womanizing shop and café owner; a fierce-looking burly biker who loves his overweight, almost feral cat; a conniving competitive breeder; and the couple's estranged daughter, who is so greedily cash-hungry that she sells everything as quickly as possible. Any of them-and a variety of others-could be the killer.
Dr. Kate learns more as she makes her daily rounds of the county's animal population. As she asks questions and tries to figure out what might have happened, someone gets nervous and puts the doc in deadly peril.
The eventual resolution is logical and satisfying. Too often, these mysteries have a scene at the end where the nosy amateur sleuth does something incredibly stupid to put herself in jeopardy. Not here. Every plot development is natural and logical. The story proceeds in a relaxed manner to its inevitable conclusion. Not everyone likes that kind of story. I love them.
Dr. Kate is likeable, intelligent, and gently clever with the distressed animals. Anyone would like her. She teaches us interesting things about animals-who knew you had to trim the toenails of parrots? She visits a couple of dog shows, but doesn't present them as an exposition of obsessed lunatics, as some authors have done. I also was greatly pleased not to find a lot of people in the story who think their pets are just as important as people. That said, we meet and grow to understand and love a number of pets.
This is a calm, relaxed, informative, and pleasant mystery with a few moments of tense suspense. I look forward with pleasure to the next installment in the series.
Note: This book was provided to me at no cost in order to write a review. This did not affect in any way my opinion of the book. (I have received several books that I did NOT like. The publishers allowed as how maybe they didn't care if I failed to review them. So I saved myself some work and did not write formal reviews, although I have rated them and made brief notes here on PBS.)
