Putting on the Dog (Reigning Cats and Dogs Series #2) »

Cynthia Baxter is a native of Long Island, New York. She is the author of the Reigning Cats & Dogs mystery series, featuring vet-turned-sleuth Jessie Popper, and the Murder Packs a Suitcase mystery series, featuring travel writer Mallory Marlowe. Baxter currently resides on the North Shore, where she is at work on her next mysteries in both series.

A charity dog show has Jessica hitting the road with her faithful one-eyed Dalmatian, Lou, and her tailless Westie, Max, for the palatial summer estates of Long Island's fabled East End. When she arrives, the posh seaside community is crawling with stars eager to take best in show for their beloved pooches. But it's murder most tacky when a celebrity photographer is felled by a giant ice sculpture at a $500-a-plate fund-raiser.

Unable to resis the scent of the hunt, Jess is soon investigating a casting director's dream of potential suspects. But if Jess isn't careful, she just might become the next victim of a killer determined to prove she's barking up the wrong tree.

Publishers Weekly

Dog lovers rejoice! Baxter is back with a frisky sequel to Dead Canaries Don't Sing, her debut Reigning Cats and Dogs mystery. This time around, amateur sleuth Jessica Popper, D.V.M, is manning the "Ask the Vet" booth for a week at a high-profile SPCA fund-raiser in the Long Island Bromptons (think Hamptons). Her first night there, Devon Barnett, a sleazy tabloid photographer, is killed when an enormous ice sculpture falls on him as he lurks in the shrubbery at a swank dinner party. The police and celebrity residents of the Bromptons seem content to write off his death as an accident, but Jess thinks otherwise. Snooping, however, is a little tough when her boyfriend, Nick, shows up with romance in mind, and her host, hunky film star Shawn Elliot, is determined to sweep her off her feet. Jess has a sneaking suspicion the answer to Devon's murder lies in his locked photo studio, but according to his gay lover, Chess, the studio is off-limits to everybody. The tale moves smoothly as Jess mingles with the film industry's hottest stars, tracking down clues, but readers will derive the most pleasure from the antics of Jess's canine companions, Max and Lou, the author's behind-the-scenes look at dog shows and the sprinkling of information she provides on each breed. Agent, Faith Hamlin. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.