This is the 3rd Raine Stockton Dog Mystery I've read and it was very enjoyable. In this book, Raine is asked to go to a cabin where a frantic and starving yellow lab is guarding his mistress who lays dead of an apparent suicide from a self inflicted gunshot wound. Raine's uncle, who is the sheriff, knows that she can remove the poor dog so the deputies don't have to shoot it.
There is no identification on the woman at the scene of the suicide, or even a vehicle parked near the remote cabin, so there are many questions about the dead woman that must be answered and the answers are not easy to find. The sheriff has doubts that the suicide is real and says that the suicide scene looks staged, to make it look like a murder.
The clues and the yellow lab provide key information that leads Raine, her uncle, the sherrif, and her on again off again husband, Buck, to unravel a twisted tale of jealousy, greed, and revenge.
Raine's personal life with Buck, also takes an interesting twist in this book, and the only complaint I have is that this plot twist was unexpected and somewhat rushed and forced. I hope we continue to see more of Buck in the forthcoming volumes, since the dynamics between him and Raine have provided tension and plot development in all three books
This is an enjoyable mystery series for dog lovers. The author, Donna Ball, according to her web site, has lots of experience with dogs, canine search and rescue, canine freestyle (a form of human/dog dancing), and canine agility and it shows in her writing.
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