Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: Amazon
ISBN-10: B00E25BM3I
Type: Fiction
Pages: 252
Copyright: July 19, 2013
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
What can you do about the judge who didn’t give you (your dog, your horse, your child) the victory? The Deadly Dog Show, a suspenseful journey into the world of canine conformation contests, provides an exciting backdrop for murder. Reviewers are enthusiastic about this whodunit novel, which will appeal to mystery readers, dog lovers, and anyone who wants to visit the world of dog show competition.
Private detective Roger Bowman is hired to impersonate a wealthy sponsor showing a champion German shorthaired pointer named Juliet at dog shows in California. His undercover assignment is to ferret out whether some of the winners are cheating. Before long, bodies of murdered judges start popping up at dog show venues and Roger’s wife Suzanne is being stalked by a mysterious admirer. With Juliet’s help, Roger and his fellow detective, professional dog handler Bruce, find a key clue. The trail leads from San Francisco to West Texas. Reviewers love the complex whodunit mystery and the inside information about how dog shows work. This Kindle E-book, part of a series, can be read as a stand-alone novel. Free to download from Kindle Unlimited.
Excerpt
The initial offer came from Sherry Wyne, the western regional representative of the American Kennel Club, on a bright sunny day in October without a trace of smog in a cloudless sky. The kind of day the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce tries to convince tourists to believe happens every day in Southern California. She came into my office in Century City in Los Angeles, exactly on time for her appointment. After standing in the doorway and removing her sunglasses she put them into a case in her purse and gave her eyes a moment to adjust. I motioned towards the client chair across from my desk.
Sherry walked over to the comfortably worn leather client chair, arranged it to her liking in front of my desk, and sat down gracefully. She glanced around the office from her seat. My large mahogany partners desk had a computer monitor on top, the computer tower and a laser printer under the desk could only be seen by their reflection in the large mirror hanging high on the wall behind my desk, and against the wall were a couple of file cabinets. All of these furnishings were remnants from my previous life as a patent attorney. A partially filled coffee pot stood in an electric coffee maker on top of one of the cabinets. The opposite wall featured a large window with a great view of the Tehachapi Mountains to the north, and several of my various martial arts competition trophies sat in mahogany bookcases lining the remaining wall space. The office lacked any trace of recent elegance. It was functional and the furniture lacked a decorator’s touch, but it had a nice view. The ambiance implied I should be attracted to the offer of a big case.
Her voice had a hint of Western Canadian ancestry left far behind. I could hear it mainly as a hint of something different in her speech cadence, which was slower than typical for Los Angeles. An occasional British usage was detected in a few words that were pronounced differently, like “aboot” for "about". "Good morning. Are you Roger Bowman, the investigator?"
I looked directly at a well-dressed woman in her early forties, very attractive with a suntan and an outdoorsy appearance despite wearing a typical dark gray business suit. "Yes, I am. How can I help you today? You didn't tell me very much about what you needed done on the phone when we made this appointment."
Sherry returned my direct look. Unlike 99% of the people who sat in that client chair, she looked very much at ease. "I'm here today on behalf of The American Kennel Club. Do you know anything aboot the organization?"
I wanted to say something like "Cut to the chase," but knew from long experience that letting the client tell it the way they wanted is faster in the long run than trying to get to the point immediately. So I settled for stating, "They run dog shows and define the rules for how pure-bred dogs get to be champions who are recognized as high quality animals. They also maintain the registry for purebred dogs in the United States."
My potential new client smiled. "Close enough for starters," replied Sherry. "We, and by we I mean the AKC, have a problem that we think you could help us with. But before I tell you what the problem is, I need to ask about your availability for a very complicated case. If you're interested in our case and can make the time to do it, I think I can promise you a very unusual, but positive, change in your life style over the next few years."
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