The
Puppy Who Knew Too Much by V. M. Burns is a dog lover's
delight. The three dogs in the story will make readers laugh
and sympathize with the main character Lilly Echosby. Beyond
the dog antics, the story has a good mystery with many twists
and thrills.
Burns bases the character dogs with
her real-life ones. "I have dogs, toy poodles, and I
just love them. This is why I had the protagonist Lilly adopt
a little black toy poodle, Aggie. She named her after her
favorite writer, Agatha Christie. A couple of years ago I
adopted toy poodles and named my dog after my publisher Kensington.
Her name is Kenzie, who is four years old. A lot of Aggie's
antics are drawn from my real-life experiences. I wish I could
say Kinsey is better behaved than Aggie, but she is not. I
have gone through a lot of situations that my characters have
gone through without the murders of course. I thought what
would happen if… For instance, my dogs like to dig when
we are out for a walk. I wondered what would happen if they
dig up a dead body."
It appears that Lilly is a murder magnet. The first book in
this series has her in the middle of a divorce when her husband
is killed. She becomes a person of interest and a widow at
that moment. Now, in this second book, she is also a person
of interest when murdered bodies seem to pile up around her.
First, her dog Aggie digs up a buried body, and then her neighbor
is found dead. It seems she cannot catch a break after moving
from Indiana to Tennessee to be closer to her best friend,
Scarlett "Dixie" Jefferson. Having the perseverance
to move forward, Lilly finds a new house, new job, and new
people in her life. She is thrilled when her attorney daughter
Stephanie and her current boyfriend, detective Joe Harrison,
agree to come down and spend a week with her. Joe hires TBI
investigator, Dennis "Red" Olson to keep the daughter
and mom safe and to get to the bottom of the murders.
This delightful cozy mystery combines
murder and mayhem, with a healthy dose of humor, friendship,
and intrigue. Adding icing to the cake is the role the dogs
played in solving the mystery.
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