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A Dog Lover's Mystery #13
Creature Discomforts
A hike in the woods has memorable consequences for dog writer Holly Winter in this latest of Susan Conant's Dog Lover's Mysteries.
When Holly Winter awakens, battered and bruised, clinging to a boulder on the side of a cliff, she doesn't even recognize her own beloved malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, much less remember their names--or her own. She does, however, realize they're her dogs, and that she is--to put it mildly--a "dog person." And she vaguely remembers hearing a sinister voice from above.
Putting clues together, she discovers that she is in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and that she's the guest of one Gabrielle Beamon, a most attractive and charming woman, whom Holly doesn't recognize at all. When it is discovered that there was another fall, this one fatal, at approximately the same time and close to the same place as Holly's, she begins to fear for her own safety. In fact, she has all she can do to figure out what's going on without giving away her own loss of memory.
You'll be licking your chops with glee as the dog fanciers in Conant's eclectic and eccentric group of characters once more prove themselves smarter and more resourceful in every way than their more anthropocentric counterparts.
From the Hardcover edition.
When Holly Winter awakens, battered and bruised, clinging to a boulder on the side of a cliff, she doesn't even recognize her own beloved malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, much less remember their names--or her own. She does, however, realize they're her dogs, and that she is--to put it mildly--a "dog person." And she vaguely remembers hearing a sinister voice from above.
Putting clues together, she discovers that she is in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and that she's the guest of one Gabrielle Beamon, a most attractive and charming woman, whom Holly doesn't recognize at all. When it is discovered that there was another fall, this one fatal, at approximately the same time and close to the same place as Holly's, she begins to fear for her own safety. In fact, she has all she can do to figure out what's going on without giving away her own loss of memory.
You'll be licking your chops with glee as the dog fanciers in Conant's eclectic and eccentric group of characters once more prove themselves smarter and more resourceful in every way than their more anthropocentric counterparts.
From the Hardcover edition.
209 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 27, 2000
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About the author
Susan Conant
44 books148 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(1)mysteries
Mother of author Jessica Park aka Jessica Conant-Park
The photo is of Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant, daughter and mother.
(1)mysteries
Mother of author Jessica Park aka Jessica Conant-Park
The photo is of Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant, daughter and mother.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 28, 2014
What can I say? After reading this, I feel that Susan Conant has thrown ME off a cliff!
For many, many books vet/lover Steve Delaney has been stalwart, dependable, and just there. Like a nicely used piece of beloved furniture. Now all of a sudden a soap opera broke out in the middle of a cozy mystery!
Amnesia! A widowed father gone a-courting! The ex shows up with a new gal -- and his dogs HATE her! (Dumb, Steve, dumb.)
I am really not sure about this book. I really did enjoy it. However, I am really concerned at the direction Ms Conant is going in.
For many, many books vet/lover Steve Delaney has been stalwart, dependable, and just there. Like a nicely used piece of beloved furniture. Now all of a sudden a soap opera broke out in the middle of a cozy mystery!
Amnesia! A widowed father gone a-courting! The ex shows up with a new gal -- and his dogs HATE her! (Dumb, Steve, dumb.)
I am really not sure about this book. I really did enjoy it. However, I am really concerned at the direction Ms Conant is going in.
January 20, 2009
Got this from a library book sale for a quarter. I paid too much. Now I’ve read Conant’s dog themed books before and enjoyed them but this thing seemed like amateur hour. It was a blessedly short waste of time.
Holly Winter comes to her senses at the base of a cliff in a Maine Nat’l park minus one important thing, her memory. She is helped off the moment by two big malamutes that she doesn’t recognize as hers. She begins to try and jog her memory as she heads back to the lodge. This is where I begin to lose respect for her. Who in their right mind (which arguably she isn’t) falls badly hiking, loses her memory and gets back to the guest house to find out that one of the conservationists she’s been staying with has died and she thinks she heard someone push him to his death but can’t be sure, doesn’t go to the hospital and then the police?
Not our Holly. She doesn’t bother with sensible things like that. No she sets about to restore her memory on her own (because that’s normal). We get to meet all the conservationists and see the rift between them and oh meet someone who I guess Holly was in love with but you can’t tell from this. In all honesty we get way more gushing about dogs than we do anything resembling a mystery. Finally Holly’s dad arrives and things break loose to an ending so unbelievable I’m shocked Conant has gone on to write more in this series…
Holly Winter comes to her senses at the base of a cliff in a Maine Nat’l park minus one important thing, her memory. She is helped off the moment by two big malamutes that she doesn’t recognize as hers. She begins to try and jog her memory as she heads back to the lodge. This is where I begin to lose respect for her. Who in their right mind (which arguably she isn’t) falls badly hiking, loses her memory and gets back to the guest house to find out that one of the conservationists she’s been staying with has died and she thinks she heard someone push him to his death but can’t be sure, doesn’t go to the hospital and then the police?
Not our Holly. She doesn’t bother with sensible things like that. No she sets about to restore her memory on her own (because that’s normal). We get to meet all the conservationists and see the rift between them and oh meet someone who I guess Holly was in love with but you can’t tell from this. In all honesty we get way more gushing about dogs than we do anything resembling a mystery. Finally Holly’s dad arrives and things break loose to an ending so unbelievable I’m shocked Conant has gone on to write more in this series…
February 21, 2023
I felt like I'd missed a book between this one and that last one because all of a sudden Steve is with someone else and Holly's dad has met someone and suddenly gets married to her.
And really, Holly is with a group of people and on one notices she's acting odd? Not even her dogs?
And really, Holly is with a group of people and on one notices she's acting odd? Not even her dogs?
January 4, 2014
Reading a book that is written in first person with the narrator suffering from amnesia is an odd experience that I won't necessarily try again. I almost felt that Conant was running short of ways her main character, Holly Winter, could run into trouble, so she threw her down the side of a mountain. When Holly awakens after her fall, she hears people discussing a shady situation that she later suspects is related to another individual's fall on the same mountain that same day, though the other person didn't survive his fall. What bugged me most about Holly's amnesia is that she couldn't remember her or her father's identities, who owned the dogs who came to her rescue when she woke up [her own dogs], or why she was on the mountain in the first place, indicating that long-, intermediate-, and short-term memories were all affected, yet she could remember arcane facts about specific dog breeds or the specific meanings behind items she finds in her possession, so her amnesia seems too odd to be legitimate. That said, it wasn't a bad book, as it brings out the conundrum of getting people to enjoy the beauty of nature, while at the same time every human footprint on nature makes it less natural.
I've said this before about Conant's books, but you really need to like dogs and the dog show world to be able to fully appreciate her writing. While this book dealt very little with dog showing, readers still had to be aware of a VERY specific nugget of information relating to dogs in order to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the man's fall off the mountain and whether Holly's fall was related or just an unlucky accident. I was not aware of this specific bit of knowledge, and thus the main clue that helps solve it all just went right past my perception.
I've said this before about Conant's books, but you really need to like dogs and the dog show world to be able to fully appreciate her writing. While this book dealt very little with dog showing, readers still had to be aware of a VERY specific nugget of information relating to dogs in order to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the man's fall off the mountain and whether Holly's fall was related or just an unlucky accident. I was not aware of this specific bit of knowledge, and thus the main clue that helps solve it all just went right past my perception.
January 25, 2018
I'm not fond of amnesia books or episodes in a book/tv series, but at least the amnesia part wasn't drug out through the entire book.
August 12, 2019
I found the premise of not remembering anything and deciding not to tell anyone a bit of a reach.
February 25, 2025
Not even sure this book deserved 3 stars. I almost did not finish it.
July 10, 2016
It's been a while since I've read any of the Dog Lover's mysteries. A friend mailed me this copy in paperback, not knowing I'd read it many years before. That didn't stop my enjoyment of returning to the world of Holly Winter and her two Malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi.
This book has an interesting twist in that Holly wakes up on a pile of rocks, wedged between two, with no idea how she wound up there, nor even who she is. When a pair of huge dogs come to her rescue, she can't recall they are even her own pets, though she does abscond with them to help her regain her footing, as well as back down the mountain. She realizes the dogs must be hers because when people try to stop her about the 'huskies' she has, she promptly responds they're Malamutes. And thus starts a confusing (for Holly) story about why she wound up on the mountain, and if she knows anything about the death of another hiker.
The characters in the book we meet this time out are enjoyable and eccentric (and some are accompanied by their dogs), while others are kind of peculiar, and one inspires jealousy without Holly understanding it, when the woman shows up with Steve Delaney, a veterinarian. Holly's father, Buck Winter, also makes his way into the story, and it is partially due to his actions Holly regains her memory - and pieces together why the other hiker 'had to die'.
Enjoyable, with a lot of dog information thrown in, Holly Winter's stories never fail to delight me. Even on a re-read, this was a lot of fun.
This book has an interesting twist in that Holly wakes up on a pile of rocks, wedged between two, with no idea how she wound up there, nor even who she is. When a pair of huge dogs come to her rescue, she can't recall they are even her own pets, though she does abscond with them to help her regain her footing, as well as back down the mountain. She realizes the dogs must be hers because when people try to stop her about the 'huskies' she has, she promptly responds they're Malamutes. And thus starts a confusing (for Holly) story about why she wound up on the mountain, and if she knows anything about the death of another hiker.
The characters in the book we meet this time out are enjoyable and eccentric (and some are accompanied by their dogs), while others are kind of peculiar, and one inspires jealousy without Holly understanding it, when the woman shows up with Steve Delaney, a veterinarian. Holly's father, Buck Winter, also makes his way into the story, and it is partially due to his actions Holly regains her memory - and pieces together why the other hiker 'had to die'.
Enjoyable, with a lot of dog information thrown in, Holly Winter's stories never fail to delight me. Even on a re-read, this was a lot of fun.
February 22, 2024
A hike in the woods has memorable consequences for dog writer Holly Winter in this latest of Susan Conant's Dog Lover's Mysteries.
When Holly Winter awakens, battered and bruised, clinging to a boulder on the side of a cliff, she doesn't even recognize her own beloved malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, much less remember their names--or her own. She does, however, realize they're her dogs, and that she is--to put it mildly--a "dog person." And she vaguely remembers hearing a sinister voice from above.
Putting clues together, she discovers that she is in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and that she's the guest of one Gabrielle Beamon, a most attractive and charming woman, whom Holly doesn't recognize at all. When it is discovered that there was another fall, this one fatal, at approximately the same time and close to the same place as Holly's, she begins to fear for her own safety. In fact, she has all she can do to figure out what's going on without giving away her own loss of memory.
You'll be licking your chops with glee as the dog fanciers in Conant's eclectic and eccentric group of characters once more prove themselves smarter and more resourceful in every way than their more anthropocentric counterparts.
When Holly Winter awakens, battered and bruised, clinging to a boulder on the side of a cliff, she doesn't even recognize her own beloved malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, much less remember their names--or her own. She does, however, realize they're her dogs, and that she is--to put it mildly--a "dog person." And she vaguely remembers hearing a sinister voice from above.
Putting clues together, she discovers that she is in Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and that she's the guest of one Gabrielle Beamon, a most attractive and charming woman, whom Holly doesn't recognize at all. When it is discovered that there was another fall, this one fatal, at approximately the same time and close to the same place as Holly's, she begins to fear for her own safety. In fact, she has all she can do to figure out what's going on without giving away her own loss of memory.
You'll be licking your chops with glee as the dog fanciers in Conant's eclectic and eccentric group of characters once more prove themselves smarter and more resourceful in every way than their more anthropocentric counterparts.
November 25, 2024
Amnesia isn't exactly convenient when you're traveling for work...
We meet several interesting characters including the narrator, Holly (who doesn't even know her name at first). There are conservationists and developers and dog show participants, including the dogs. It is an interesting mix.
At the story's beginning, Holly wakes up, bleeding, on a rocky mountainside in Acadia National Park. She has no idea where or who she is. Two not so random dogs find her and things still don't fall into place. She meets several people that she knows "for the first time" without divulging that she has no clue about her life at all - which is really odd. No one notices that she has amnesia.
This book was given to us by my mother-in-law because it takes place in Acadia National Park. My husband and I went on vacation there this year. Honestly, I'd not have read this book if she hadn't placed it in my hands. It was a fun surprise, though. Unfortunately, the last several chapters are full of almost pointless fighting and bickering which we didn't really enjoy.
We meet several interesting characters including the narrator, Holly (who doesn't even know her name at first). There are conservationists and developers and dog show participants, including the dogs. It is an interesting mix.
At the story's beginning, Holly wakes up, bleeding, on a rocky mountainside in Acadia National Park. She has no idea where or who she is. Two not so random dogs find her and things still don't fall into place. She meets several people that she knows "for the first time" without divulging that she has no clue about her life at all - which is really odd. No one notices that she has amnesia.
This book was given to us by my mother-in-law because it takes place in Acadia National Park. My husband and I went on vacation there this year. Honestly, I'd not have read this book if she hadn't placed it in my hands. It was a fun surprise, though. Unfortunately, the last several chapters are full of almost pointless fighting and bickering which we didn't really enjoy.
February 18, 2015
In the 13th installment of Susan Conant's Dog Lovers Mystery series, Creature Discomforts, Holly Winter took on her wildest dog-loving mystery yet. When Holly awakened from a nasty fall in the woods, bruised and battered, she didn't remember her dogs or her own name. But she remembered hearing a sinister voice from above. She discovered she was at the Acadia National Park in Maine, and a guest of Gabrielle Beamon, someone didn't recognize either. As she slowly pieced together the clues on her own fall, she learned about a fatal one that took place near where she fell and feared for her own safety. She needed to figure out what was going on there without giving away her memory loss to others.
April 13, 2008
I was pleased when a friend informed me of Conant's dog/detective series. Growing up with a grandmother who devoured every "The Cat Who..." story, which never interested me, I have long wanted dog-themed books of same.
The author does not disappoint. The books are witty, informational, and quick-reads, without being too predictable.
The author does not disappoint. The books are witty, informational, and quick-reads, without being too predictable.
March 26, 2008
I have read several books in this series and enjoyed them all right. But I found myself frustrated with Holly and her attitude towards her boyfriend Steve. So I really enjoyed the twists in this one. Holly winds up with amnesia and doesn't even recognize her beloved Malamutes! Killer ending. Very strong entry in this series, but it really helps to have read a few others first.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2007
Holly has amnesia from a fall -- doesn't tell anyone. Environmental group is being scammed by a Pyramid scheme
May 8, 2008
Normally I like Conant's books, but this one just didn't grab me the way the others have. The plot was too predictable aand the humor seemed forced instead of flowing naturally from the character.
March 1, 2011
Memory loss! Ah, I share this symptom, except that here's was an accident. Mine is merely over-abundant migraines.
March 31, 2011
amnesia, Ponzi scheme, rocks
July 23, 2011
While the plot line is a little odd, lots of great dog stuff. And I love the parts from the dogs' POV.
April 27, 2013
loved SO much.
March 1, 2018
I'm re-reading the earlier books in this excellent series.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews