Hounded to Death: A Melanie Travis Mystery

by: Laurien Berenson

Published by: Kensington Books (September 2007 Release)

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Hounded to Death is the fourteenth in the Melanie Travis series by poodle owner Berenson.

Melanie, her Aunt Peg (a dog show judge), and her sister-in-law Bertie all travel to a five-day-long symposium in the mountains of Pennsylvania that is about everything to do with judging dogs. Peg drops a bomb while they are on the road: she is going to meet a man she met on the Internet, another dog show judge, for the first time.

The reception holds a few surprises: Richard, the Internet interest, has come with his mother, also a judge; he travels with her everywhere. His mother, Florence, has decided opinions on her son’s welfare, and Peg is not judged to be good enough for him. While taking a walk, Melanie meets a scared and thin German shepherd, and after telling her Aunt Peg and Bertie, they decide to go out that night and try to find him. Instead they discover keynote speaker Charles Evans dead, face down and naked in the hot tub!

Charles had stunned the audience a few hours before with his speech about the “future” of dog shows. He was beginning to see the point of view of the animal rights activists who feel that purebred show dogs are genetically manipulated by breeders into parodies of their original uses. Originally dog shows were tests of the dog’s function and usefulness. Now they had become, according to Evans, little more than “puppets for human entertainment!” The crowd was astounded that one of their own, a respected handler and judge, had turned his beliefs around so much. Caroline Evans, his wife, also a dog show judge, slipped out of the talk and disappeared.

Alanna Bennet, a beautiful blonde flirt who lives on the fringes of the dog show world and a friend of Bertie’s, is not as shocked by the speech as everyone else. Why was Charles naked? Was he meeting someone? There had been talk of a judge asking for bribes. Was this scandal related to his death? And who bops the obnoxious Florence on the head?

Armchair Interviews says: Anyone who loves dogs—and interesting settings and characters—will enjoy this series.

Author’s Web site: http://www.LaurienBerenson.com