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Dusty Deals Mystery #4

Let Loose: A Comic Cozy Mystery

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No good deed goes unpunished. The rule has kept Lucy Mathews out of trouble for most of her 29 years. That is until her part-time partner decides Lucy’s image needs a little polishing and shoves her in front of every do-good bandwagon she can find.


Luckily for Lucy, her dream charity runs right up to her doorstep in the form of a sexy Canadian musher who’s in town to help organize the local sled dog race.


Not so luckily for Lucy, sexy Canadians and detective boyfriends do not a happy mixture make.


One dead race organizer, a group of rambunctious octogenarians, and a team of sled dogs in need of a home later and Lucy is confident this punishment is more than anyone, much less one lone antique store owner, can handle.

311 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 3, 2014

60 people are currently reading
114 people want to read

About the author

Rae Davies

12 books58 followers
Rae Davies is the pen name of goodreads author Lori Devoti.

Lori Devoti worked for three different newspapers in two different states before deciding to stay home with her children and begin writing fiction. Lori has been a finalist for many awards including the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award and is a member of Novelists Inc., a prestigious group for professional writers. She lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and children as well as two dogs.

Like Lucy, Lori loves antiques, Montana and malamutes.

Rae Davies has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/RaeDaviesAuthor and Pinterest boards at http://pinterest.com/raedaviesauthor/

(Source: http://raedavies.com/about/ )

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5 stars
97 (38%)
4 stars
100 (40%)
3 stars
42 (16%)
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10 (4%)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Krystyna.
5,134 reviews55 followers
May 26, 2018
Mush

Another light easy read cozy. Her relationship is going well until a dog charity run is organised in town. The boyfriend and the organiser are like oil and water and when a death occurs it goes from just sizzling to boiling. Can she and her faithful dog clear up the mess before blood is split? The characters are fun and easy to like. Okay the plot is easy to see through but the rest of the book makes up for it. Next!
Profile Image for Susan.
498 reviews6 followers
June 21, 2018
I don’t know if I’ll finish this one. I gave the two stars because I want to like it. The plots are good and make for a nice puzzle and quick read. But Lucy is just so weak. Bossed around by her so called friends, her supposed boyfriend, and even her dog. I just want to yell at her to grow a spine. Maybe if I put the book down for a month or so I can at least finish. But this is the last of the series for me.
1,064 reviews4 followers
January 21, 2019
Great read

OK I've read 4 books in this wonderful series by Rae Davies and getting the next book now I can't wait to see what Lucy gets into next if you love a great cozy you'll want to read this one
Profile Image for Annalee.
40 reviews2 followers
August 3, 2018
Enjoyed as Much as the First Three!

Can't wait to read more about Lucy and Kiska! What a fun mystery! Each can be enjoyed alone, no cliffhangers! But read all four!
1 review
July 22, 2021
Fun, easy to read.

Plot was easy to follow. Funny and entertaining. Loved the descriptions of area and scenery. Look forward to next book in series.
Profile Image for Laura Thomas.
1,558 reviews108 followers
May 1, 2014
I knew Lucy was in trouble the minute she locked onto the warm, toffee colored eyes of Martin. What’s a girl to do? She already had a great boyfriend in Peter, a police detective.

Martin came to her rescue when she tripped and rolled down the hill in the minus 30 degrees cold while trying to find her Malamute, Kiska. Before she could stop herself, she volunteered for the Silver Trail dogsled race, which was being held in her town of Helena, Montana. I could see all kinds of delicious trouble brewing.

Lucy owns Dusty Deals, an antique store, with her self-proclaimed partner Phyllis and employee, Betty, who actually run it more than she does. These two were hilarious. Always volunteering her for this and that, angling to make her a who’s who in Helena.

At the fundraiser, Lucy arrives sporting her new do, blue hair courtesy of an episode involving a matchmaking biddy at the hair parlor. As the trail route is revealed, Frank, a member of the Skyers, a snowmobile club, objects, claiming part of the route is theirs and the planned route will have to be changed. Red, the trail organizer, manages to deflect Frank until after the presentation, where they are seen in heated debate. Seems like trouble has arrived in Helena.

The next morning, Lucy’s morning coffee is interrupted by the howls of the hounds from hell. Rushing to the window, she spies a team of sled dogs running loose. Being a dog lover, she lures the team into her jeep with some hotdogs and heads to their kennels to return them safe and sound.

When she arrives at the truck, all the kennel doors are open. This couldn’t be an accident. After she stumbles upon Red, she’s sure of it. The bullet hole in the back of his head indicates murder has come to her town.

The rash of snowmobile thefts and the dispute over the trail route might be connected and Lucy’s previous job at The Helena Daily News comes into play with her nose for ferreting out stories. Let’s just hope her snooping doesn’t put her in the killers crosshairs.

Romance, dogs, murder, and humor. What more could I ask for in a cozy mystery.

The romance is interesting. Enter Martin, the ruggedly handsome musher, and Peter, the absent boyfriend. Hmm…While the cat’s away…

The mysteries were fun to follow. I was curious whether the snowmobile thefts and the dispute over the trail route were connected. Was there a saboteur and a murderer working together? Was there just one culprit? What there was, was plenty of suspects and a heck of a good time sorting them out.

Lots of local color and flamboyant characters along with comic relief made this a truly fun cozy mystery. I already knew it would be when I spotted the adorable cover art. You can be sure I’ll be reading more of this series.

I received this book for my honest review. I'll happily buy more of this series.
2,325 reviews38 followers
May 16, 2014

4 STARS

I enjoyed reading Let Loose my first book in the Dusty Deals Mystery Series, but not the last. It is a cozy mystery with lots of crazy characters that make you laugh. It also makes you glad that you don't have 8 big dogs in your house.

Lucy Mathews is the main character. She is single with a cop boyfriend. She owns her own Antique store. Her partner and employee keep getting her involved in community service. She is curious and wants to solve the mystery. Kiska is her Alaskan malamute.

Detective Peter Blake is Lucy's boyfriend but he has been too busy lately with work to see her. He is a good cop who actually does not let police information out like most cop characters.

Lucy finds a bunch of loose sled dogs out front running loose. She had met a man just recently that was staying up at a camp ground with his dogs. So Lucy went there to see if they were his dogs. She found a dead body their. Lucy can't help trying to find out more about the murder. She has also been chosen to keep the dogs as they were part of the crime and she had big yard that was fenced.

There are a lot of characters that have history together. I feel I missed out on little things but nothing that will stop anyone from enjoying this book, If your like me and this is your first Dusty Deals Mystery.

Some of the humor comes from all the senior citizens and the trouble they find. Also from all the dogs running around and getting into things.

The setting is small town in Montana. Where they are setting up a race with sled dogs that will run right in front of Lucy's house in the country.

The pacing of the story is good. It keeps your attention in it.

The romance of the book is slow. Mystery of who the murder is good and keeps you guessing.

I was given this ebook to read and in return agreed to give honest review of it.
Profile Image for Denise Zendel.
780 reviews3 followers
June 30, 2014
Lucy Mathews, aided by her loyal Alaskan malamute, Kiska, sells antiques and solves mysteries in Helena, Montana.

In this fourth outing, one of Lucy’s part-time employees thinks she needs a little image improvement and volunteers her for a string of charitable activities. Lucy’s dream charity falls into her lap in the form of a gorgeous Canadian musher in town for a dogsled race. Lucy’s feeling a little left out since her cop boyfriend is busy with work, so she decides a little flirting is in order.

The race organizer ends up dead, and one of Lucy’s elderly charges is in the hot seat. Lucy wants to help her friend, and more importantly extricate herself from being responsible for the dead man’s rambunctious dog team. Her head is momentarily turned by the musher, much to the cop boyfriend’s dismay.

I’m a longtime fan of this series, and Book 4 doesn’t disappoint. It’s a light, easy, fun read sprinkled with romantic complications and interesting tidbits about dogsled racing. Great beach read – or maybe great ski vacation read, since it’s set in the winter.
Profile Image for Paula Ratcliffe.
1,427 reviews73 followers
April 24, 2014
In this book Lucy Mathews finds herself deep in a murder mystery on top of a thief running loose add to that contending with a dog sled team she is fostering. When a sled dog team owner winds up dead and Lucy ends up with his team of dogs it's up to Lucy to figure out who killed him and why, and what is she going to do with the team of sled dogs.

I love reading about Lucy and her companions along with the dogs and all the antics they were up to. It was definitely a different spin on a normal cozy mystery and definitely worth the adventure you get taken on. I will definitely look for other books by Rae Davies she is a great story teller!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2,451 reviews44 followers
May 19, 2014
My favorite of the series. After capturing a team of runaway sled dogs, antiques dealer Lucy Mathews tried to return them to their owner only to discovered his dead body! Now she has to keep the dogs until the case is settled and until someone else is willing to take in eight loud and active Alaskan malmutes. I am hoping that the shift in her relationship with Peter will be reflected in the next book!
Profile Image for Linda.
198 reviews2 followers
August 4, 2014
The zany characters in these Dusty Deals mysteries are so fun to read about. Smart-aleck Lucy, spunky Ethel, calm and down-to-earth Rhonda, sexy hunky Peter, Kiska the lounging hot dog-loving Malamute....they're all so likeable that you can't help but root for them even when they do the craziest things while they're investigating the latest local murder (Lucy has found four bodies so far). I hope Rae has more in her...maybe even a new series with new people? Fun book.
Profile Image for Daniell.
271 reviews4 followers
March 22, 2015
In the fourth installment of the Dusty Deals mystery series our lead character Lucy doesn't disappoint in getting herself in the middle of yet another predicament. This book is all kinds of fun with sled dogs fabulous old ladies, romance and of course murder. A great cozy read.
Profile Image for Charlene (Char) ❤︎ ❀˖° ❤︎.
563 reviews28 followers
June 28, 2015
Murder and Snow

I love the dusty deals mysteries this book is good although I do wish Peter and Lucy have more scenes being a couple overall great book. Murder , snow , sledding , dogs
124 reviews
April 26, 2015
It was a good suspense book, I always enjoy her novels, can't wait for the next one.
785 reviews
May 30, 2016
What a fun series

I loved every one of the stories. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series. Happy times.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews