Saturday 29 August 2020

Doggone Dead (The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mysteries #1) by Dane McCaslin

Doggone Dead (The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mysteries #1)

Retired high school teacher Gwen Franklin has a new pet valet business with her BFF, and a whole new leash on life. But a killer is about to come sniffing around . . . 

Gwen Franklin is looking forward to spending her retirement drinking her favorite coffee and reading mystery novels. Those peaceful plans are brought to heel by her best friend, Nora. Sporting stiletto heels, leggings, and a “more is better” makeup routine, fifty-something Nora Goldstein has a penchant for marrying—and divorcing—rich men. Now that Gwen’s got free time, Nora figures they should start a dog-walking and pet-sitting service together.
 
But it’s far from a walk in the park when the corpse of Linda Fletcher is found in Nora’s kitchen. Linda was Nora’s nemesis, and the large knife protruding from her chest points to murder. With no doubt that her bestie’s being framed, Gwen puts her sleuthing skills—acquired from reading every Agatha Christie mystery—to the test as she digs through suspects, including four disgruntled ex-husbands, ten greedy ex-stepchildren, not to mention all her exes’ exes. But with death threats and another body surfacing, can Gwen curb a killer before her own (dog) days come to an end?  (Summary via Goodreads)



Doggone Dead, the first book in the 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mystery series, by Dane McCaslin is a total hit !!  Readers will not be able to put this book down once they start reading it.  The characters, the setting, and everything else will capture your attention and you will be powerless against the force.

In Doggone Dead Gwen Franklin has just retired from her job of teaching high school kids and is looking forward to staying up late reading in bed, sleeping in without the alarm clock waking her up, not having to deal with bratty students and just hanging around her house and yard.  Unfortunately her best friend Nora Goldstein has other plans for the two of them !!

In Nora's apartment building and across the street at the dog walking park there are a lot of dogs..... Nora decides that her and Gwen should start a dog walking and pet sitting service and when one of Gwen's students, Brent, is her Uber driver on the way to Nora's, he ends up being a part of the business.  While they are getting the word out to all the residents in Nora's apartment, Nora's neighbor ends up in Nora's kitchen.....dead !!  Sadly the killer could have been anyone because no one locks their apartment doors when they are going on a quick errand.  While the two friends who feel like sisters try to figure out if Linda was the intended target or if it actually could have been Nora seeing as it was Nora's apartment, Nora's many step-children begin to appear.  Nora has quite a few ex-husbands who left her well off financially however the step-children disapprove.  Would one of them be willing to kill her to get at her money ??  Or it could be someone pretty much standing right in front of them and they don't even know it.  Can they figure it out in time ??

I think that The 2 Sisters Pet Valet Mystery series is going to be one of my favorite series.  This is definitely going to be a series that I will be keeping an eye out for.  I love the main characters and their relationship.  Their friendship is one that we can all wish for !!  And the "trouble" that Nora gets into and Gwen has to help get her out of will have readers laughing out loud.  Even the murder and the way they go about solving it is quite entertaining !!  And the way that Gwen reverts to her teaching methods throughout the story only makes it better.  McCaslin really sets the stage perfectly in Doggone Dead ..... I cannot wait for the next book to see where the adventure takes the ladies......



Review by Missi M.



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