Murder Most Beastly

Dog Lover's Mystery #8

by Melissa Cleary

Jackie Walsh and her ex-police dog Jake are back in the newest edition to the popular Dog Lover's Mystery series. This time the scene of the crime is the Palmer Wildlife Habitat (a.k.a. the Zoo), where a bizarrre murder teaches Jackie that not all the so-called "animals" are behind bars.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Natasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

If it were possible to give this book less than one star, I would. I feel sorry for the paper it is printed on and feel encouraged that if this woman can get a story published, than I can too. But at the same time, I don't know that I'd want to be published knowing that clearly, some publishing houses seem to have no standards.

The premise is this woman who is a film writer and a film history instructor solves crimes with the help of a police dog. There's a cover-up at the zoo involving strange animal and human deaths. For whatever reason, only the main character can figure out what's going on. The plot is absurd and the portrayal of the dogs and other animals assanine. It was nice that this author let her two-year old create the characters for her, though. That's the only explanation for the complete and utter lack of character development. Seriously, have you taken a basic middle-school English class?

I can think of no one to recommend this book to. What makes me really sad is this book is apparently one in a series involving the main character and her dog. Why are there more than one of these?

If you love your brain, don't read this book.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like zoos, I have a gut feeling that the animals are not cared for well enough to justify keeping them in cages. So when the premise is a bad zoo and then animals are getting killed...this is so not my kind of story so I rushed it, skimmed it, prayed for it to end.

[Ainee Beland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this small paperback crime in captivity; the story was slow and at times, I did not understand what I was reading because I could not relate to it at all; but for a few tidbits on the hound from hell named Maury. Maury is described as that of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of Baskervilles. Maury the hound from hell woke up some of the neighbors and disturbed their bingo night; as he hunts a cat in the alley beneath their windows.

Some frighteningly funny moments with Maury: Dancing around on his back legs, his front paws held high like Rocky Balboa, Maury kicked the useless harness aside; bellowed like a moose—the cat, still dizzy, felt its way toward the nearest tree.

Other neighbors were madder than they had ever been; not since the early days of the Roosevelt Administration, the irate seniors who lived in the apartment complex heaved everything they could get their hands on at the hellhound outside.

There was one really funny instance where this woman named Donna Lee Bolz who’d been sleeping with her boyfriend when her husband was away for the evening… looked up at the racket down below and having glanced at her clock realized that it had stopped working since it read “666” therefore the barking in her courtyard was the beast predicted by Revelations!… This is it, Bingo! Donna Lee wept uncontrollably, Judgment Day!

Anyhow, having read this book, I realize that dogs do have their adventures and conversational thoughts as they prance about to and fro; just as humans would in this story.

[PF O'Friar · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are two extremely funny scenes with animal shenanigans, but it is more like a very unfocused slice of life than a proper mystery.

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this ending being not what I expected.