"A terrific debut of a new interesting and believable cozy series"
Reviewed by Betty Cox
Posted April 11, 2011
Mystery Pet Lovers
Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues a no kill animal shelter funded generously by Dante DeFrancisco, owner of HotPets, a chain of pet supply stores. Lauren met Dante through her friend, Kendra Ballantyne, who is an attorney, pet sitter, and Dante's special lady. Efram Kiley had been working at HotRescues as part of a legal settlement. Efram's badly abused dog was re-homed by HotRescues after the dog was completely well and the owner could not be found. Efram sued the shelter and Dante, and a compromise was worked out that as long as Efram worked for Lauren and learned how to properly care for an animal, Dante would pay him a substantial sum in installments. In the event Efram didn't live up to his end of the agreement, the payments would stop. When a filthy and over crowded puppy mill is raided, Efram is caught trying to throw Beagle puppies down a storm drain leading to the ocean. Lauren had been called in to help where she could with the abused and sick animals. As far as she is concerned, Efram's despicable act negated the legal agreement with Dante, and Lauren advises the scum ball never to come to the shelter again. However, Efram does come back and threatens Lauren and all of the animals at HotRescues if he does not get the money due him. A nasty scene ensues before Efram leaves. The next morning his body is found in the animal compound. Since Lauren had spent the night in her office just in case Efram did return to hurt the animals, she is the prime suspect. She just might have an ally in Captain Matt Kingston, head of the SmART team (Small Animal Rescue Team of Los Angeles Animal Services). Matt's a very imposing figure, and quite a hunk; he is also younger than Lauren, but hey! Lauren needs all the help she can get to prove her innocence. BEAGLEMANIA is the excellent start of a new animal series by the wonderful Linda O. Johnston, who writes the fantastic Pet Sitter series. This is an excellent story about how a shelter should be run -- if it only had the finances available to them that HotRescues does. The supporting cast of characters is fully developed, and all dialogue is intelligent and interesting. A story thread about a sick woman having to give up her beloved dog because she has no income and is looking for a cheaper place to live is beautifully told and Lauren is able to help with the problem. Dante and Kendra are prominently present, which made this reviewer happy. Lauren's budding relationship with Matt is also pleasing. Beware, Ms. Johnston is a firm believer in surprise endings. What a terrific debut of a new interesting and believable cozy series that portrays the good and bad treatment of pets. Oh, by the way, the author points out that this no- kill facility only applies to animals. SUMMARYLauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill
animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human
nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when
she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were
dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill.
One of the
mill's employees has a history of dog abuse-and a bone to
pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues
after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the
real killer to keep herself out of a cage...
EXCERPTChapter 1
I am not a killer.
At least not a killer of animals. I save their lives
whenever humanly possible, especially pets. Their sole
purpose on this earth is to love and be loved, like
perpetual children.
People are something else.
Right now, Iโd have gladly used my own handsโnice,
strong ones for someone in her forties, since I do a lot of
enclosure cleaning, lugging and opening of animal food
containers, and other physical laborโto strangle Efram
Kiley, the man who stood in front of me. His expression
was the picture of innocence even as he squared his thin
yet sturdy body, as if attempting to hide the filled floor-
to-ceiling cages in this torture chamber of a mega shed
from my view.
Impossible, considering how many there were.
He couldnโt hide the smell, either. It was awful. The
caged puppies and their parents obviously had no choice but
to eliminate their wastes in the same place they lived and
ate and suffered. The only surface beneath them was wire
mesh that undoubtedly hurt their feet. No comfy rugs or
mats for them.
And the sounds. Their cries. Their barks.
The outraged comments and shouts of the three Los
Angeles Animal Cruelty Task Force members whoโd leaped in
like superheroes to reinforce regular animal control
officers, all intent on saving these poor creatures.
Efram must have read the fury in my expression. Or maybe
heโd learned enough about me, in the past few months, to
know what I was thinking.
He quickly turned, and before I could say anything, heโd
plucked an adorable beagle puppy from one of those
appalling crates and gently placed her into my arms.
What could I do but nestle the squirmy little body close
to my face, stench and all? "You poor little thing," I
whispered against one of her long ears as I used my free
hand to extract a small towel from the tote bag over my
shoulder and wrap her in it.
"Sheโll be all right now, Lauren," Efram assured me. As
if he had anything to do with this rescue. Instead, the
opposite was true. He was a party to the horror of this
puppy mill. Even so, he said, "Isnโt this just a terrible
place?" He shook his head slowly, as if he was as upset as
I about the condition of this hell house and the innocent
beings who lived here.
"Yeah," I agreed. "Terrible. So why do you work here?"
"I donโt."
"Then are you one of the owners?" I demanded.
"You know better than that, Lauren."
What I knew was that he was involved. I didnโt need to
know exactly how, although I doubted he owned the place.
But Iโd have bet he profited from it somehow.
I glared into Eframโs doleful brown eyes as I shifted
the puppy in my arms. Towel or not, that smell was getting
to me. But I wasnโt about to release her till I saw she
would be taken care of.
She was just one of dozens of puppies here that the ACTF
and animal control officers were handling with great care
and angelic concern. And I would, eventually, have to hand
her over to them.
Efram was in his twenties, with dark, messy hair that
hung over his forehead. He worked out a lot and favored T-
shirts with torn-off sleeves to show off his muscular
biceps. His jeans were worn, his sneakers new.
He did a lot of work for me at HotRescues these daysโthe
no-kill animal shelter I had helped to open a few years ago
and now ran.
Oh, yeah. Efram was an animal care apprentice tending to
creatures in need. He even had a choice about it: either
learn how not to abuse pets and help care for them while
they waited to be adopted, or forgo the substantial amount
of money that was part of the legal settlement weโd entered
into a while back.
Guess which heโd chosen.
Last year, Efram had threatened to sue HotRescues and me
for rehoming his dog, Killer, without attempting to find
the lost pupโs real owner. I, in turn, had been furious
about the condition of that poor dog, now called Quincy,
who had been brought to HotRescues as an apparent rescue
from a public shelter, or so Iโd chosen to believe. The
settlement of our dispute had been fair. It resulted in
Eframโs being paid to learn how to really care for animals.
Iโd even thought that, after all weโd taught him, he had
become genuinely contrite for having abused Quincy. He
certainly had seemed to throw himself energetically into
his quasivolunteer work with HotRescues.
I wondered now if every bit of it had been an act.
"Youโre Lauren Vancouver, arenโt you?" One of the
uniformed animal control officers Iโd glimpsed outside
approached me. She was tall, her ginger hair pulled starkly
back from her round face.
Efram looked relieved, as if this official, who could
arrest him, was easier to deal with than me. Maybe she was.
I expected J. Gibbonsโthe ID on her nametagโto demand
that I leave. Now. Civilians werenโt particularly welcome
here, in the middle of an official investigation. I knew
that.
But this wasnโt the first animal rescue that Iโd crashed.
Nor would it be my last.
BOOK SERIESPet Rescue Mysteries BEAGLEMANIA
#1.0
โข March 2011
 THE MORE THE TERRIER
#2.0
โข October 2011
 HOUNDS ABOUND
#3.0
โข April 2012
 OODLES OF POODLES
#4.0
โข February 2013
 TEACUP TURBULENCE
#5.0
โข January 2014
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