Andi Grace Scott is the amateur sleuth in this lively second book in the ‘Low Country Dog Walker’ series. Andi Grace, a humble dog-walking entrepreneur, has unexpectedly inherited a former rice plantation in the coastal South Carolina area. This new status brings responsibilities, costs and pleasures. DOG-GONE DEAD shows that danger follows.  

Nate, Andi Grace’s brother, is carrying out a landscaping job nearby and one morning the lady shows up to meet her brother, but he is missing and a probably dead man is buried under some freshly unloaded mulch. Luckily, Juliet Reed, Andi’s friend who has a crush on Nate, arrived with her and the two ladies start phoning for help and attempting to revive the man. They’re not sure if whoever attacked him is still around, but they did observe some cars leaving the scene fast. Everything gets reported to the police in due course, but that doesn’t alter Nate’s being the prime suspect in the attack.

Cue scenes in which our intrepid and loyal sleuth tries to tease out motives and connections among all the townsfolk. Including, searching through social media posts and photos for a year back, trying to see who knew whom and attended the same venue. Actually, I’m astounded that Andi has time, because she’s extremely busy. She’s still dog-walking, and converting a barn on her property to a dog business use. She’s refurbishing the historic home to make a B&B for added income, doing much of the work herself, but she’s in two minds about living there and selling her own, dainty-sized, seashore cottage. She’s also got a friendly lawyer, Marc Williams, on hand to talk about the case, and she’s hoping more can come from their fledgling relationship. And then there’s her lovely German Shepherd, Sunny, a mature dog now, plus the odd stray pup. This lady leads a packed life, I’m telling you.  

I think the attention to detail and busy atmosphere bodes well for the continuation of this series, as new characters could appear from many directions and the folks about town are becoming well established. Oh, and the police. The ones who keep telling Andi to stop breaking and entering. This is a good fun read, especially for responsible dog owners. I’ll be interested to see what Andi does with the plantation land after DOG-GONE DEAD. The author Jackie Layton probably has big plans. Her previous book is called Bite The Dust and I’ll be looking out for it to learn more about this enjoyable low country setting.