Book #16: A Pug's Tale by Alison Pace

"A Pug’s Tale" by Alison Pace follows Hope McNeill who works in the Conservation Studio at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When a valuable painting comes up missing (mysteriously, with a fake left behind) Hope and her colleagues decide to try to find it on their own. They hire a detective but do not go to the police. Hope suspects everyone and feels like everyone suspects her as well.

This all happens at a time when her boyfriend, Ben, is living out of the country and she is left to care for his pug, Max. Max is all Hope has at the moment and she feels very alone with no one to confide in. Without Max, however, Hope would never be able to piece together the clues that lead to the person responsible.

Ms. Pace does a beautiful job of setting the various scenes. Having never been to New York, let alone Central Park or the Met, I am given a picture of words that allows me to experience it as if it were my own backyard. She develops a likable character that I can relate to in Hope. I can sense her anxiety and her obsession with the mystery. Of course, when you add in a lovable, snorting Pug, that’s a bonus!

A Pug’s Tale was a fun read and a page turner. Many times I didn’t want to put the book down but was forced to. I always looked forward to being able to get back to it and read some more. Ms. Pace has written several other books with dogs playing prominent roles, I suspect that I’ll be picking those up as well!

I would recommend this book to fans of mysteries, Pug lovers and art aficionados.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher after winning it from Goodreads.com. This in no way influenced my review of the book. My thoughts here are my honest review.

Book #4: Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

I had heard about this book long ago and thought I should read it. I saw favorable reviews and it was recommended by friends. I thought it would be a book that I would love. Instead, I just kind of liked it.

"Dog On It" by Spencer Quinn is a Chet and Bernie mystery; the human, Bernie, is a private investigator and Chet is his dog who didn't quite make it through police K-9 training. Together they make up the Little Detective Agency. Bernie is hired by a mother to find her missing teenage daughter. Not a few hours after he is hired, the girl comes home on her own. Case closed. Until she goes missing again, this time for real.

Bernie and Chet are on the case even though others think the girl will just turn up again. Bernie follows his intuition and Chet follows his nose. There are a couple of twists that probably should have really interested me, but I just couldn't seem to get into it. Bernie pretty much has the case figured out and lets the reader know "whodunit" in a rough sense. The only mystery at that point is finding the girl and piecing together the details.

I never found myself looking forward to reading what came next. Maybe the fact that I didn't have anything to ponder is what bored me. The characters were very likable, but it didn't seem to matter too much when something seemingly bad happened to them. I knew it would work itself out and I didn't care much how it would happen.

Although I wouldn't tell people it is a "must-read", it's not a bad little story. If you like mysteries, give it a try. If you read it too, let me know what you thought of it.

Just as an aside, I would recommend you check out Chet's blog; it's pretty cute!

Another Stephanie Plum Novel for Book #24

My most recent book is part of the Stephanie Plum series, written by Janet Evanovich. I was eager to read "Hot Six" and see where things went after the fifth book. As I expected, I was not disappointed.

In this installment, Stephanie Plum the bounty hunter, is given the task of looking for her mentor, Ranger. She quickly turns down the skip and it's passed on to her arch-enemy, Joyce Barnhardt. Joyce isn't the only one looking for Ranger though, in fact a lot of people are. And all of those people think Stephanie is the one to lead them to him. This is where her trouble begins.

Just to add interest to her already chaotic life, Grandma Mazur has a disagreement with Stephanie's father and moves in with her which really puts a stop to Stephanie's love life. Her love life, of course, was already a mess at the end of "High Five", but you will have to read "Hot Six" yourself to find out how that all turns out.

As always with the Stephanie Plum novels, Janet Evanovich has me laughing out loud chapter after chapter. They are smartly written and I never feel like it's a cheesy book that I'm just burning time with. The characters are well-described and I am fully invested in each and every one of them. I highly recommend the series and although you don't need to start with the first one, it's well worth your time to do so.