There’s a new dog book in town and it’s written by two women who really know their dogs. In their nonfiction love story to dogs everywhere, “The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection,” the authors share all the wonderful benefits and reasons to bring a dog (or two or more) into your family.
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In “Gather,” Kenneth M. Cardow introduces us to a teenager who has had to grow up much more quickly than anyone should have to. Ian is used to being abandoned; his father left Ian and his mother years before, and then his grandmother left them to move south to be with her sister. So now, it’s just Ian and his mother in the small, run-down family home, on land that has been in Ian’s family for many generations. His father’s family, that is.
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Atmosphere can be everything in a murder mystery, and Paula Munier goes to great lengths to ensure that “Home at Night” is filled with not only several dead bodies, but lots and lots of creepy Halloween vibes. The setting for the Mercy Carr mystery series is Vermont, where Mercy is from. She’s a veteran and her beloved dog Elvis was a working military dog for her fiancé who was killed in action. She lives in a beautiful cabin with Troy, the game warden she married, a young friend Amy and Amy’s baby, Amy’s boyfriend, Troy’s working dog Susie Bear, and a rescued cat. It’s a lot for a small house, so they’ve been house shopping.
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What do you get when you mix a woman with a curmudgeonly view of Christmas (as in “Bah, humbug!”), a thousand-mile road trip with a dozen rescue dogs, a town that celebrates the Christmas spirit to the fullest, and a handsome and very kind paramedic who rescues the damsel (and her dogs) in distress? Why, you get “The Twelve Dogs of Chrismas” by Susan Wiggs, and if this sweet holiday-filled read doesn’t get your heart ready for the holiday of giving, then your heart is as filled with ice as the fictional upstate New York town of Avalon is with snow and holiday cheer.
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While the weather outside isn’t even close to snowy, holiday romances are filling the shelves with plenty of good cheer to spare; many featuring furry, four-legged companions to spice up the entanglements of the two-legged types featured in the novels.
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It’s almost Christmas, and Rudolph the reindeer is missing. And while this misplaced caribou is a resident of Colorado instead of the North Pole, the situation is affecting the work of one Dame Ariadne Carlisle, world-renowned cozy mystery author who has published 99 books. But without Rudy, her muse is gone. This is where our two intrepid detectives, Chet and Bernie, enter. “Up On the Woof Top” is Spencer Quinn’s fourteenth book in this popular series, and there’s something rather special about it.
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In spite of the clever title, “‘Twas the Bite Before Christmas,” David Rosenfelt’s newest Andy Carpenter mystery does not feature any dogs who bite, especially not the adorable Dalmatian on the cover. What this holiday-themed novel does have, and what almost all of Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter mysteries have, are clever plots, lots of bad guys, one very innocent guy who is being framed, more twists than even Santa’s most challenging routes, and many sweet rescue dogs. Add in one curmudgeonly, reluctant attorney who loves rescuing dogs and hates practicing law, and the plot is set.
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Dog lovers need an easy reference book that can help with practical information about dog care, dog cognition, dog emotions (yes, they have emotions just as we do), and dog breeds, and “Dogs Demystified: An A-to-Z Guide to All Things Canine” by Marc Bekoff is just that book. This is a book with important information that is helpful not just to the new dog owner, but even to seasoned dog people like me.
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“Dogtown” by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko is a middle grade fantasy that will be extremely appealing to kids because it’s filled with dogs—real dogs and robot dogs, or really just one special robot dog. There’s even a mouse. The story is told in first person by Chance, a dog residing in a shelter at the start of the story.
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The “Bree Taggert” series by Melinda Leigh has a lot to recommend it. The main character, Bree Taggert, is the sheriff in a rural upstate New York county. She left her job as a Philly homicide cop to move into her sister’s home and raise her sister’s kids when her sister was killed. She accidentally ended up as sheriff, and she’s got a lot on her plate.
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In her second novel, “The Book of Silver Linings,” Nan Fischer takes us on a journey that doesn’t take us to exotic locales; it is, instead, an internal journey, inside the psyche of a young woman, Constance Sparks. Like many of us, she matured into an adult based on her childhood and the love—or lack of love—that she received. Constance’s boyfriend Hayden calls her “constant Constance” because she is determined to find the stable life she wants to live. She wants a husband, children, and security.
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Author Ann Garvin lives in the Midwest and has a dog named Peanut, so it’s no wonder that the main character in her new novel, “There’s No Coming Back from This” is from Wisconsin and ends up buddies with a dog. (Coincidentally, I lost my dog Peanut earlier this year, and my current foster dog is named Peanut.) Poppy Lively, the main character in this charming story, may have a frivolous name, but there is nothing lighthearted about her. She has spent almost two decades being a single mother and devoting her life to being the best mother she could be. But now, from her IRS debt to trying to hide her financial woes from her daughter Robyn, she is desperate. Poppy is struggling to do whatever is necessary to not lose the money she has saved for her daughter’s college and to keep their family home.
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