annieb123's Review of A Good Dog's Guide to Murder (Paws & Claws Mystery, #8)

by Krista Davis

The great Gingerbread Dog & Cat House competition has come to Wagtail, along with another murder to solve for Holly and her supersmart Jack Russell terrier Trixie in the New York Times bestselling Paws & Claws series by Krista Davis!

Visitors are arriving in droves to spend Thanksgiving in the mountains of pet-friendly Wagtail, Virginia. Many of them are bringing dog and cat gingerbread houses to enter in the contest that will be held in the new convention center. Wagtail resident Orly Biffle bequeathed the land to the town in his will, provided that they not cut down the grand old oak tree on the property. Orly’s children are mighty miffed that they didn’t inherit the prime piece of property overlooking the lake.

Holly notices that Trixie and Twinkletoes, her calico kitty, are fixated on the big oak tree. Trixie barks at it as though she thinks it’s a corpse! Just as contestants are spicing up their sweet gingerbread creations, the majestic tree drops an enormous limb. The mayor declares that the tree is dangerous and must come down. When a bulldozer churns up some roots, the tree falls over on its own accord revealing a body inside the trunk! Initially, everyone suspects this unsavory trick was Orly’s doing. But it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to keep the truth under wraps. Trixie and Twinkletoes now have to help Holly sniff out some suspects and leash a conniving killer.

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

A Good Dog's Guide to Murder is the 8th Paws & Claws cozy mystery by Krista Davis. Released 6th Sept 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in mass market paperback, library binding, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a cute pet-friendly small-town bookish cozy with an appealingly eccentric cast of characters of both the two- and four-legged variety. Main protagonist Holly has a lot on her plate (literally and figuratively): she's dealing with her mom moving back to Wagtail, arranging the local gingerbread house contest, managing the Wagtail Inn during the busy holiday season, oh, and helping solve a murder uncovered by her suspiciously intelligent pets.

It's a cozy so the language is clean and the violence happens off-page. The author has included bonus recipes at the back of the book which are appealing and even include a few for pets (clearly specified in each recipe). The mystery is self contained in this book so it works pretty well as a standalone. There are currently 8 books extant in the series, making it a good choice for a long binge- or buddy-read.

Four stars. Recommended for fans of light small-town cozies featuring lightly anthropomorphic intelligent pets helping solve crimes. Fans of Jenn McKinlay, Ellery Adams, and Laurie Cass will likely already have this series on their radar, but if not, it's well worth a look.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Reading updates

26 December, 2022: Started reading

26 December, 2022: Finished reading

26 December, 2022: Reviewed