Dead Dogs and Englishmen

An Emily Kincaid Mystery #4

by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2011!

Something nasty is afoot in Emily Kincaid's northern Michigan town—besides Emily's increasingly cranky friend Deputy Dolly. When the body of a brutally slain woman turns up in an abandoned farmhouse, Emily and Dolly uncover a disturbing pattern. Bodies of dead dogs are being thrown into migrant Mexican workers' yards—a gruesome warning to keep someone's despicable secret.

Clues to unravel this macabre affair seem woven into the manuscript Emily is editing for Cecil Hawke, an eccentric English author. Each page paints an eerily familiar picture of intimidation, madness, and murder. But reading further into the Englishman's twisted fiction could spell Emily's untimely death.

"Buzzelli will have you packing your bags for a move to northern Michigan."—KIRKUS REVIEWS (starred review)

"Emily is a detective for our skint times: She can't afford health care, but she can make flour out of cat tails and work three jobs at once."—CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli (aka Elizabeth Lee) is a Michigan based novelist whose 12th book is due out in 2016. She teaches fiction writing at Northern Michigan College and has written for the NORTHERN EXPRESS, the ROMEO OBSERVER, the DETROIT NEWS, and the RECORD-EAGLE. She is a member of the Author’s Guild, International Association of crime Writers, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers’ of America, Michigan Writers, and Detroit Working Writers and has three mystery series out, or about to be published.

In the Emily Kincaid series her novel DEAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN was chosen one of the best mysteries of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews. A new series (written as Elizabeth Lee) is now out with the third: NUTS AND BURIED (based in Texas) to be published this November from Berkley Publishers. Another series, beginning with A MOST CURIOUS MURDER, (Crooked Lane Publishers) will be out in July, 2016, with the second: DEATH OF A SAD POET, scheduled later in the year.

Reviews

[Victoria Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy, entertaining read. A few nice plot twists. Only thing that bothered me was the lack of editing! Typo and clearly wrong words in sentences were missed. That annoys me lol.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is OK. I really wanted to like it but it got off the tracks somehow. The character of Emily Kincaid and her interactions with her friend, policewoman Dolly Wakowski, is a bit off. Emily is hired by Cecil Hawke, an Englishman with a devotion to Noel Coward. He hires her to edit his book on the life and works of Coward but Emily finds another, completely different book when she begins. The question is, is the book fiction or an autobiographical account? The book had a lot of promise but several issues made me think less of the story.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emily Kincaid is hired to edit the manuscript of a wealthy English gentleman farmer who is writing a book of the life of Noel Coward. When she begins her work, she finds a disturbing tale unfolding instead of a book on the life of the playwright. This comes while she is worried about her friend, Dolly, the local policewoman who is acting strange even for her. This was an interesting and good mystery but it has a lot of dark spots.

[Sydney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, I don't like it when a promising series seems to head downhill into the land where my willing suspension of disbelief cannot function. Or perhaps I am unable to fully fall in behind the evil "mastermind" plot. Also do not like stories with dead animals (especially dogs and horses). The title gives this away; so no need for a trigger warning, but still.

[DelAnne Frazee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Dead Dogs and Englishmen - Emily Kincaid Mystery Book 4
Author: Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli
Published: 2-7-2017
Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing
Pages:
Genre: Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense
Sub Genre: Women Sleuths; Women's Fiction; Cozy Mystery
ISBN: 13: 9781946069177
ASIN: B01N19M21U
Reviewer: DelAnne
Reviewed For: NetGalley
Rating: 4.5 Stars


I received a copy of "Dead Dogs and Englishmen" from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.


With family living throughout Michigan I looked forward to reading this book hoping to feel like I was visiting an aunt or cousin and was not disappointed. Emily Kincaid came to Willow Lake following the divorce with her pretentious English professor husband, Jackson Rinaldi. Unfortunately he is now on Sabbatical to write the ultimate authority on Chaucer. Making a pest of nuisance of himself with text and phone calls. Emily herself trying to get inspiration for her own book she is trying to write and her part time job as a reporter.


Add the fact that her woods is being eaten by tent worms, dead dogs are being found, dead bodies and Deputy Dolly Wakowski all but demands she come with her to cover a murder for the press. Then her cheating pompous ex shows up telling he has found a job that might suit her. (I was wanting him to drown him in the lake by Emily's home.)


Fast paced and filled with a wide variety of characters. Even though this is the fourth book in the series I don't believe readers will have a problem following the story. Very little of the back story is mentioned. I found myself pulled into the story from the start. Who was the woman? Was the dog part of the murder in some way? What is up with Dolly? Did Emily truly ever love the jerk enough to marry him and if so how had she stayed with him so long? All within the first 3 chapters. I gave "Dead Dogs and Englishmen" a 4.5 out of 5 rating. Clean with humorous moments. This is a novel to be enjoyed by cozy mystery buffs.


Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N19M21U/...


Barnes and Noble link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-...


GoodReads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...


The Reading Room link: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.ph...


Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/DelAnne531/status...

[Lindajk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not as good as the first three books, but I will continue the series.
I like the two main charters in the books, and the friendships in the small town.

[Lori Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, easy read.

[Barb Czz]

Once again Emily kept me entertained. I will look forward to book 5

[Nancy Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a warning if you love dogs and are appalled by dog fighting--give this one a pass--I couldn't fonosh it and I hav loved this series.

[Karen Rink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the series, this is just not my favorite volume.

[Freda Witt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been my least favorite (so far) book in this series. A couple of the characters were just so evil, and the content so unpleasant. Over all though, the book was enjoyable, and I am already reading the next one. BTW, our little Deputy Dolly is (miraculously) pregnant. She will finally get the family that she is so desperate for.

[February Four · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.]

At turns chilling and macabre, the Emily Kincaid books are an excellent addition to the cozy mystery thriller. I love the gruff Dolly, who somehow worms her way into your heart even though she starts out so unlikeable. Jackson and Harry, Bill and Lucky, Eugenia and EATS... the cast of characters is excellent and definitely out of the usual cast you get in this genre. I look forward to more. (Though good lord, yuck to the tent worms.)

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

This is a very good book. It’s about small town Michigan. Emily Kincaid is a recent transplant to this small town, along with her dog, Sorrow. She is a struggling mystery writer and part-time newspaper writer. He friend and neighbor, Henry Mockerman, collects dead things from the road, grows his old garden, and occasionally shares his secret recipes with Emily.

Then there is Deputy Dolly. She is a feisty, “the law is the law” type of deputy. She is one of a two person police department. She arrives without warning and doesn’t take no for an answer.

This book is well written and plotted. It keeps you guessing – and sometimes guessing wrong. It’s all part of the fun. The book has its moments though. There are seances, shots in the dark and so on.

I want to thank Netgalley and Beyond the Page Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this great book to read.

[Marci · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a Michigan academic-type writing about a former academic-type Michigan writer who is trying to get mystery novels published which are about--surprise!--the exact mysteries the author has already published. Hm.

This was my first introduction to her writing and to this series, which is about 3 or 4 books in. It would have helped me to go into it knowing the author's background a little better. Then I would have immediately recognized and appreciated the extended metaphor of the tent-worm infestation, but as it was, I thought it was digressive and irrelevant. However, just when I was going to give up, the plot finally got out from under the literary trappings and became interesting.

There was one point where I got irritated at the formulaic woman-knows-in-the-back-of-her-mind-the-criminal-is-there-but-goes-there-anyway, but I decided I'd have to see how she got out of it (this is, after all, a series, so the author obviously couldn't kill off her protagonist). There's a flaw, I think, in the criminal's fate, but maybe it's deliberate.

I did appreciate all the Noel Coward nods, especially turning his dramatic settings inside out. It was fun.

[Lelia Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Freelance reporter Emily Kincaid and her testy friend, Deputy Dolly Wakowski, set out to investigate the murders of a woman and a dog and are alarmed to discover that there seems to be a concerted campaign to intimidate many of the migrants in their rural area. In the meantime, Emily is hired by a flamboyant author to edit his manuscript and begins to think there’s something very creepy about the story he has written and that perhaps there is a connection to what’s going on in the community. A growing list of crimes and Dolly’s unexplained moodiness add to the mystery and Emily eventually finds herself at a most unusual and disturbing party.

Cozy readers will be put off by a fair amount of violence and descriptions of animal cruelty but many will find this fourth entry in the series to be well worth reading, thanks to the author’s tight prose and her willingness to address difficult subjects. I, for one, hope there will be many more books to come.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, May 2011.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Determined policewoman Deputy Dolly and free-lance writer Emily tackle the case of an unidentified body found in an abandoned house. Mexican migrant workers are being threatened by dead dogs thrown at their house. The more than usually anti-social behavior of Dolly is disturbing to her reluctant friend Emily. Then Emily's ex-husband Jackson offers her a much-needed job editing a manuscript for his new-found friend Cecil Hawke. The author intended this book to expose evil, and succeeded too well. It is unpleasant to read, and I regret not following my impulse and stopping after the first 100 pages.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, of course I like this because I love the local color. But there was more to like--the little introspective bits, the cast of characters, the snarky tone.

As a mystery/thriller it suffered from being part of its genre--there had to be a dramatic showdown with gruesome events and Extreme Tension. And, like all mystery heroines, it seems, Emily is prone to putting herself into stupidly dangerous situations. But that--I think--is what readers expect; they'd sputter if nobody was left gored at the end.

Already picked up another Dead book.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novel. I see that this is part of a series, and I can't wait to read more of them. Ironically, the main character is a novelist living in rural Michigan, and stumbles into various mysteries, this one featuring the migrant workers in the area, and the finding of dead dogs as a calling card of the murderer. Great characterizations, and lots of interesting rural habits are explored, including the canning of fish! Very enjoyable for an English major nerd.

[Elorise Holstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys reading about interesting (if not unique) characters in rural settings. The book is part of a series, featuring an aspiring writer living in Michigan's scenic north country. The story can stand alone, but you'll probably enjoy it even more if you start from the beginning.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason this does not have 5 stars is because google books had a glitch where it "ended" on page 180. I kept having to page through till I found my place. I can't wait for her next installment of life in the north woods!

[Rachel]

Started this and abandoned it right away. Wherever the recommendation came from I clearly didn't read it well, because it's the kind of mystery that pretty much never does it for me, where the person doing the solving isn't a cop or a PI or anything. No thanks.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily and Dolly are wonderful female leads- each with their own brand of strength and femininity. Buzzelli keeps you reading...

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really? An author who lives in Michigan writes a mystery about an author living in Michigan?

Somehow this mystery was kind of boring.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buzzelli's best work! It kept me on the edge of my seat and yet had sweet moments.

[Michael Melara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good thriller, well written and believable characters and descriptions of small town life.

Will definitely read other books in this series I am now hooked.

[Tfeenstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

good mystery read! fun to end 2011 with.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable, easy to read, will try another by buzzelli

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, easy to read, hard to put down.

[Debbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, loved that it took place in/near Traverse City! I look forward to reading the books that came first on this series.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot was a little predictable. I think the title of this book gave away who the murderer was.