Told with humor and a sharp observation of village life, the reader follows an unlikely pair of investigators in a prickly alliance through a case with a disturbing psychological twist.
This book won 1st Place Fiction in the Book category voted on by the Public Safety Writers Assocation.
A gruesome murder in a cat rescue sanctuary splinters animal lovers and animal haters in a serene California mountain village. Village patrol officer, and animal activist, Holly Seabright, intrudes herself in the investigation to clear the name of the founder, a heroine among the animal rescue community.
Hot shot homicide investigator, Dex Stafford, battles a cat allergy and a dislike for a place without a Starbucks—or even streetlights. Nothing goes his way. He and his partner disagree over the course of the investigation.
A city boy in the countryside, Stafford pursues the killer, but the solution to the crime hits him from a direction he never saw coming.
Excerpt
The neighbors called security so Holly Seabright showed up in the patrol Jeep. They'd watched this old fool who’d just got his final divorce papers dig holes in front of his cabin with his Bobcat, roaring back and forth. One tree to plant and so far had dug twenty-one holes. First he’d dig a hole. Then he’d have a drink and go back and fill in the hole, and then dig a new one.
Holly listened to his sad story for a while, then persuaded him to park his machine for the night and go to bed. If she hadn’t read in the local weekly that he'd dragged his ex-wife’s couch out on the deck of the cabin she’d moved into and taken an axe to it, she’d have felt sorry for him. He'd left his wife’s half of the couch on the deck. Set fire to his half. That got security patrol and the deputies there in a hurry. The forest was so dry after four years of drought in California that Sierra Mountain Village would have gone up like a rocket.
Holly shook her head, driving away. People! Didn’t you just wonder sometimes?
195 words
Around 8 p.m. on a spring evening. Friday.
Wearing the hated black battle dress uniform that made any woman look like a bag of potatoes tied in the middle, Holly Seabright showed up to her village patrol job, 5 ft. 10”, underpaid and unappreciated. Coming into work tonight, careful not to show up looking blissed out and yawning, she basked in the afterglow of the first weekend she'd spent with Dex Stafford in a month. Between his schedule and hers they'd had damn little time for any hot monkey sex, or even much kissy-face-tickle. The boss gave her the eye when she came in but didn't say anything. Things were tense between them. By now Stafford would be half way back to Bakersfield, curling down the black mountain roads towards California’s Central Valley. He was the first real boyfriend Holly had in a while, and remembering his big hands on her, she really wanted to hang on to him. She left the office at town hall and got into the Jeep patrol vehicle. The radio crackled. She took the call, hearing the yips of a nearby pack of coyotes.
“Sierra Mountain Village Patrol. Go ahead, please,” she said, thumbing on the mobile radio.
“Holly? Holly? Is that you?”
“Sierra Mountain Village Patrol. Go ahead, please.” Not recognizing the voice, she didn’t break radio protocol. Too many people listened in to radio calls for something to charge up the monotony of a long evening in a sleepy mountain town. They monitored the radio, hoping something terrible was happening to the neighbors. That would be interesting.
“It’s Peach. Come over. I need help. Please. Get here as fast as you can. Something terrible…” her voice high-pitched and panicked.
“On my way.” Holly thumbed the radio off and climbed into the patrol Jeep. Was Peach crying?
303 words
All the doors of the six 12 x 12 rooms in the main cattery building were wide open. Cats were everywhere, tabbies, marmalades, calicos, tuxedos, cats of every color and description: cats fleeing from her, cats winding around her feet in the dark. The meowing, hissing, and claws skittering on the linoleum floor were broken by the hard sobbing of the old woman. At the far end of the hallway, the loading dock door framed a rectangle of moonlight. The air around her buzzed like a neon sign.
Training kicked in. Stop to listen. Size up the situation. Take deep breaths. Slow down, heart jackhammering in her chest. Maglite held ready as a club, Holly paused at the door of the treatment room.
A thought stabbed her brain like a shard of glass. Get the hell out of here.
139
A dark shadow pooled on the floor by the table where the staff mixed up vaccinations, prepared kitten formula, and treated minor injuries. One look in the powerful beam of the flashlight told Holly this wasn’t a heart attack.
162
Professional Reviews
Another Mar Preston Book Not to Miss
5 stars
By Sarah Edwardson March 13, 2017
I'm always waiting for the next Preston book and as expected this one made the wait worthwhile. If you've read Payback you get chance to reconnect with the main characters, Dex and Holly, two law enforcement officers with different roles working together in a small mountain community. Otherwise you'll get to meet these two well-developed characters and, if you're like me, you'll be hoping she writes another mystery soon to know still more about them and the exploits. Having a mystery take place in a cat rescue center is unique and a welcomed change of pace from the usual murder mystery settings. There are enough real life, down to earth characters and small town shenanigans to get your head shaking. The plot keeps you guessing, eager is keep reading, because there are so many possible culprits that you won't have clue "who done it" until it's done.
Excellent Read
5-stars
A tart and sassy look at the complexities of a cat rescue sanctuary in a California mountain town. The investigation can’t turn up a single person or motivation to kill the victim. But somebody did. Less about cats, this good read, is a stinging look at people rich and poor and why they do the crazy things they do. Recommended.
I enjoyed the development of the characters
5-stars
By E Gilberton August 27, 2017
The Most Dangerous Species is the first book I’ve read by Mar Preston. Normally,if a fiction that does not engage me early I have a hard time finishing it. I want to be vested in the story and found Most Danagerous Species accomplished this. I enjoyed the development of the characters, the gritty Bakersfield detectives, the cast of Mountain Community folks, some volunteers, some deeply engaged, and some, well not such great neighbors. I really did want to know who killed Don, if only for Peach. This who-done-it is worth reading and I am looking forward to her other books.
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Reviews for "The Most Dangerous Species"
Reviewed by Misty Iputi
3/14/2018
To begin with this was was a book I had reservation about however as the book moved along i found myself enjoying myself and having a hard time wanting to put it down. This was an interesting book until the end and one I will enjoy reading again.
Mar Preston has written a wonderful who done it about a murder at a cat sanctuary that keeps you wondering who the killer is throughout the book. Her delightful dialogue and characters make this a fun and engrossing read, so if you like a good mystery, this is the book for you. I can highly recommend it and say without equivocation- get this book, you won't be disappointed!
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