Book #25: Duplicity Dogged The Dachshund by Blaize Clement

Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund is the second installment in the Dixie Hemingway Mystery series by the late Blaize Clement. In the series, Dixie, a former law enforcement officer is now a pet sitter in Sarasota, Florida. During her pet sitting duties, she finds herself  discovering dead bodies and subsequently involved in the investigation.

In this installment, Dixie is walking a dachshund when the dog finds a body. Dixie is once again in the middle of the case, at times alongside Lieutenant Guidry who is handsome and a bit mysterious. Dixie, not able to fully escape her law enforcement past, begins asking questions and ends up in the sights of a psychopathic killer.

I enjoyed this book a bit more than the first. I felt like Dixie's character was changing a bit and for the better. She was becoming more aware of how she was running away from people emotionally. Toward the end, there were definite improvements in her outlook on life. I hope that this positive change carries on to the next book.

Speaking of the next book, I plan on reading the entire series. There is going to be one more Dixie Hemingway Mystery published (the seventh installment) that Ms. Clement wrote before her passing. After that, it is planned that her son will carry on the series.

Book #20: Cop Turned Cat-Sitter

I just finished reading my twentieth book of the year, "Curiosity Killed The Cat Sitter" by Blaize Clement. It is the first in the Dixie Hemingway cozy mystery series. I chose this book as my second selection for this month's book club discussion on Twitter.

Dixie Hemingway was a deputy in the local sheriff's department when her life was turned upside down. She left her law enforcement career to become a pet sitter and leave her former life behind. On one of her routine assignments checking on a cat whose owner hired Dixie to watch her pet while she was out of town, Dixie discovers a dead body face down in the cat's water dish. All signs point to Dixie as a suspect; she had a key to the house where the body was found, nobody had seen her on her early morning assignments and she was already looked upon as a bit unstable in the community.

Dixie uses her skills she developed in law enforcement to dig deeper into the mystery of the dead man and the missing owner of the cat she is tending to. Her questions come naturally, as does her ability to read people. Soon, she is getting in further than she should, but she can't stop the nagging thoughts about the case until everything finally becomes clear, with a little assistance from the cat.

Throughout the book, Dixie shows compassion for all the animals on her watch, but indicates that she doesn't want one of her own. Because of the recent upheaval in her life, Dixie can't seem to get close to anybody, including a pet. I'm hoping to see that change in future books of the series.

The only thing I really didn't like about the book was how it was wrapped up after the case was solved. There were a lot of loose ends that I had to make assumptions about and I would rather have had some more details about the characters I had gotten to know in the story. Overall, it was a fun mystery and I will check out the next book in the series, "Duplicity Dogged The Dachshund".