Product Description

While Melanie is busy showing her Standard Poodle puppy at the Poodle Club of America's National Speciality Dog show, Betty Jean is found dead at the host hotel. Melanie instinctively starts to investigate, and comes up with a compelling cast of suspects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147758 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This is Agatha and Macavity nominee Berenson's 10th charming canine cozy (after 2002's Hot Dog) to feature Melanie Travis, the poodle breeder and devoted "mom" to black Standards Faith and Eve. Melanie leaves her seven-year-old son, Davey, and dog, Faith, with her ex-husband while she travels with Eve to the Poodle Club of America National Specialty dog show in Maryland. Melanie's Aunt Peg, who runs the show, directs her to work with two eccentric sisters from Georgia who look alike, dress alike and finish each other's sentences "like a pair of bickering bookends." When one of them falls on a hotel porch and is fatally injured, it looks like an accident-at first. For all the engaging human characters, including dog handlers, breeders, show officials, trimmers and owners, the dogs, in all sizes, colors and ages, provide the most fun. Carried along by crisp dialogue, the story occasionally bogs down in "doggy" details, but even the uninitiated should find these interesting and informative. The arrival of Melanie's "almost fiance" at the end will leave readers hoping that the two will set up dog breeding together by the next book.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Berenson takes her latest--and best--Melanie Travis tale on the road and into the ring: the entire story takes place at the Poodle Club of America's dog show. With her seven-year old son, Davey, staying with his dad for the week, Melanie hops in the car with her puppy, Eve, forsaking Connecticut to head for Maryland and poodle-lovers' paradise. Familiar characters joining her are the always-demanding Aunt Peg and Bertie, the currently pregnant wife of Melanie's brother. The preshow high jinks are interrupted, however, when an elderly spinster turns up murdered. Melanie investigates, of course, and the offbeat dog owners and trainers make for a fertile field of suspects. Not nearly as farcical as the movie by the same name, the novel offers an affectionate and realistic portrait of the dog-show world. A pleasant mystery and a loving tribute to poodles. Fetching in every way. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Murder at the Nationals
The PCA (Poodle Club of America) is having their annual dog show in Maryland. A national specialty is a huge event that draws people from all over the country. Naturally Aunt Peg is involved in the planning and Melanie is drafted into helping out with the raffle. The two odd sisters that run the raffle are interesting, they have a dog that is a contender for the best in show prize, although another exhibitor will do anything to stop them. One of the sisters is found dead on the grounds of the hotel, and whether or not it is murder is up to the police, and Melanie to decide and solve.

This latest in the Melanie Travis series was alot of fun. The descriptions of a large dog show are right on, down to the snobbish attitude of the breed exhibitors towards the obedience competitors (Terry makes a particularly nasty and inappropriate remark here, but some breed people are like that, thank goodness not all). Melanie and Sam's relationship is touched on, nice to see it back on track. The solution to the mystery is not readily apparent, lots of red herrings. All in all, another great mystery.

A mystery and dog lover�s delight
Melanie is leaving her son behind in Connecticut with his father while she and her Aunt Peg travel to Maryland to attend the annual Poodle Club of America event. Melanie is going to show her puppy Eve while her aunt is going to make sure everyone knows their job. Melanie's lover Sam Driver is also going to be at the dog show and Melanie hopes to have some quality time alone with him.

Aunt Peg ropes her niece into helping the Boone Sisters, Edith Jean and Betty Jean into selling raffles. Although the sisters are eleven months apart in age, they look like identical twins. When Melanie walks Eve in the designated area of the hotel, she hears a scream and when she and others look to see what happened they find Betty Jean lying dead on the ground. When the police start investigating, they discover she was murdered but this time Melanie vows not to get involved, a promise that doesn't last the full week of the conference.

There are plenty of suspects who could have wanted the victim dead but readers won't be able to figure out this complex, multi-layered who done it until the author is ready to reveal the identity of the killer. Members of the audience may have fragments of the solution but Laurien Berenson holds back one shocking, unbelievable fact that changes the whole picture and the best part is that the clue is hidden in plain sight. BEST IN SHOW is a mystery and dog lover's delight.

Harriet Klausner

Description of a National Dog Show - and a mystery too!
This is the story of what a dog show dedicated to one single breed is like from the point of view of a participant: i.e. a dog owner/breeder/exhibitor who is also becoming part of the family of people who run the national organization in support of that breed. Oh, it is also a story about the death of a woman and the solution to the mystery of who did it, why, and what are all the mysteries surrounding it.

For those who have read the previous Melanie Travis mysteries, this is no surprise. However, for the benefit of those who might consider picking up this book as their first foray into the series, here is some of the background you should know:

Melanie Travis is a single mom in her early 30's who is kinda engaged to Sam Driver. While Melanie's day job is to be a special education counselor in a private school, her after work hours are consumed by her son - Davey; her dogs; her lover; and her unfortunate predilection to get involved in - and solve - murder mysteries. In this novel, Melanie is out of her element in a sense. She decides to take a vacation and participate in the week long poodle show that is the apex of the poodle showing world. She has her own puppy to show - a standard poodle puppy that she bred named Eve; but the main point of her foray is to get away from her normal environment and kid and enjoy a week's "vacation" at the dog show. Sam comes to join her mid-week and their romance is part of the storyline as well.

While at the dog show, Melanie is put to work helping out two elderly sisters who run the annual raffle that raises much money for the club. On the very first day of the show, one of the two sisters is killed in a suspicious way and Melanie spends the rest of the show splitting her time between helping the surviving sister; prepping and showing her dog; and getting involved in a whole bunch of storylines that inevitably lead her to the killer and their motive.

However, the real meat of this book is the annual poodle show. Around 90 to 95 percent of the story is really a description of what this event is like. Since Melanie is Peg's niece, and Peg is on the board of directors of the Poodle club of America (PCA), we get an insider view of what takes place at such events and what takes place behind the scenes to make these kinds of events work and succeed.

The author is clearly very much in love with the whole dog show scene and lovingly describes each activity and event. I did find it funny to notice the semi-derogatory mentions of obedience and agility events as well as the hyper focus on the conformation parts of the show - but that is a minor nit. The author clearly prefers the pageantry of the conformation circuit where the Champion titles are won and very accurately describes these kinds of events. To those of us who are not quite as accomplished at understanding what happens, she gives very nice descriptions of what the judges are doing; why they are doing these things; and even throws in some descriptions of some of the theatrical elements that take place.

The mystery elements are clearly a secondary offering, but that matters very little to me. All the clues as to what is going on are there for you to notice and I figured out reasonably early on who the killer was and why, so there were no real surprises in that part of the story. There are a couple of side stories thrown in to confuse you and they resolve themselves neatly at the end of the book.

I like this entry in the series and would certainly recommend it to those who have read previous books. To those who have not, I would suggest reading this one after some of the others so that the complex relationships between Bob, Sam, and Melanie; Frank and Bertie; Peg and the gang, etc. do not confuse you. All in all, this is a keeper.