Product Description

Melanie Travis has her hands full these days, what with adding a husband and three more dogs to her already cramped home. The advanced obedience training for her dog Faith is a welcome respite from the stresses of house hunting, until murder forces Melanie to the head of the class.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220934 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Berenson's engaging 12th canine cozy, trainer Melanie Travis is pleased to learn on enrolling one of her standard poodles in a class at the South Avenue Obedience Club that the club offers a visiting program at the Winston Pumpernill Nursing Home in Greenwich, Conn. A club member, Paul Lennox, started the program to cheer his Aunt Mary, a dog lover and resident at Winston Pumpernill. Unfortunately, during Melanie's first visit to the home, someone suffocates Aunt Mary in her bed. Aided by her astute Aunt Peg, Melanie once again turns sleuth, though catching a killer must compete with the demands of her new second husband, her eight-year-old son, her poodles and intrusive cats from next door. The author depicts the nursing home residents with a wise and knowing chuckle.
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Review
"Fresh, lively writing, a tough mystery, light humor and insight into the pecularities of human and canine behavior."

Review
"This series gets stronger with every book."
-- Romantic Times (Romantic Times )

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable story--but a bit light on mystery
Seeking a way to escape the influence of her dominating aunt, Melanie Travis, and her champion poodle Faith, sign up for dog obedience classes. The class is a hotbed of rumor and past affairs, but they do one good thing--they visit a senior housing center weekly to let the residents visit with their dogs. Meanwhile, Melanie's life is getting very complicated with a new husband, her seven-year-old son, and five poodles living in a very small house, plus a job where one of her fellow teachers seems unduely interested in a well developed, but still 12-year-old seventh grader. Then there's the sexy neighbor with cats and a permanently missing husband.

On her first visit to the senior housing campus, one of the guests dies--and the police discover it is murder. Recognizing Melanie's history of solving mysteries, her fellow obedience school members urge her to discover the killer. With a bit of pressure, and some help, from her aunt, Melanie sets off to do just that.

Author Laurien Berenson maintains a light tone, provides lots of information about dog training and showing, if not so much about the mysteries she's solving, and recognizes the importance of personal life in her sleuth. Indeed, half the fun is watching Melanie solve mysteries between running around with her dogs, trying to keep her son entertained, exploring the sexy side of her new marriage, and dealing with an overcrowded life.

RAINING CATS AND DOGS is an enjoyable story. I would have liked to see a bit more sleuthing and mystery mixed in with the 'life of Melanie Travis,' but that didn't keep RAINING from being an enjoyable story. Dog-lovers, in particular, will appreciate Berenson's attention to the interaction between dogs and their human-companions.

enjoyable who-done-it
For a woman who likes order and routine, Melanie Travis' life has dissolved into chaos ever since she married Sam because he moved into her home so that her son wouldn't have to change schools and neighborhoods. Unfortunately her six room house was not big enough to hold two adults, one active boy, and five standard poodles. While they are looking for a bigger house, Melanie escapes one night a week to the South Avenue Obedience Club with her dog Faith.

The club members bring their dogs to the Winston Pumpernill Nursing Home in Greenwich so the residents can play with the canines. One of the members of the club Paul Livingston has his great-aunt living there and he loves her dearly. Melanie can understand why when she meets her but that initial introduction is their last meeting because someone murdered her while the canine club was there. The leader of the club challenges Melanie to find the murderer knowing that she solved other homicides so once again she takes up the mantle of a sleuth.

Laurien Berenson can always be counted on to write a thoroughly enjoyable who-done-it. RAINING CATS AND DOGS is more humorous than some of the other books in the series as Melanie tries to deal with too many people and dogs in a small house, a new sexy neighbor whose husband is always on the road, and looking for a house that will meet everyone needs especially her canine caper crew while trying to find a murderer. The characters in this series continue to change and evolve making it impossible for fans to grow bored.

Harriet Klausner

Another great read!
I love this series and look forward to every new book - my sister and I both read the Melanie Travis books and love them! We both show dogs (not poodles) so can relate to all the dog show references - most of which are accurate! This is a very entertaining series and I hope Ms.Berenson writes lots more Melanie Travis mysteries.