Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
Beaglemania is filled with useful information on shelters, puppy mills, and how to care for animals, and I enjoyed all of that very much. If only the rest of the book had been as interesting.
The mystery is fairly predictable, and I knew the identity of the killer in the first scene in which that person made an appearance. (I hate that when it happens.) Even then I would have liked the book if I'd liked the characters, but they seemed lackluster as well. The rest of the cast takes a backseat to Lauren Vancouver, who has an irritating tendency to fly off half-cocked. She's trying to find a killer, so she goes off to question the people on her suspect list by herself. She's lucky she didn't get stabbed and shoved down a storm drain. Then she agrees to an interview and expects the media not to do a slice-dice-and-spin-it-our-way on the tape. It's very difficult for me to like a character who repeatedly forgets to use her little grey cells.
I was expecting something a little bit different in this book because of the first two lines I quoted-- which I found very intriguing; however, those lines came to nothing, and I was left feeling as though Beaglemania was a sad-eyed dog that couldn't wag its tail.
The mystery is fairly predictable, and I knew the identity of the killer in the first scene in which that person made an appearance. (I hate that when it happens.) Even then I would have liked the book if I'd liked the characters, but they seemed lackluster as well. The rest of the cast takes a backseat to Lauren Vancouver, who has an irritating tendency to fly off half-cocked. She's trying to find a killer, so she goes off to question the people on her suspect list by herself. She's lucky she didn't get stabbed and shoved down a storm drain. Then she agrees to an interview and expects the media not to do a slice-dice-and-spin-it-our-way on the tape. It's very difficult for me to like a character who repeatedly forgets to use her little grey cells.
I was expecting something a little bit different in this book because of the first two lines I quoted-- which I found very intriguing; however, those lines came to nothing, and I was left feeling as though Beaglemania was a sad-eyed dog that couldn't wag its tail.
I like Johnston's other series and since I am active in animal rescue myself, I thought I would love this book. But, I didn't. I just had a hard time getting into it for some reason. There are a few facts, bits of info that are repeated a handful of times which was annoying and the first half of the book doesn't really have much in the way of sleuthing or suspects. The second half was better and I did want to know who the culprit was, but when his/her ID was revealed, I realized that was who I thought it was early on- no surprises to make me go WOW. Not a bad book, but not great either. Not sure if I will read book two in this series.
