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A Shuffled Pack
Murder has a way of ruining everything. Prince of Sylvan, dog, pack gamma, and police detective, finally had everything going right in her life. Love, career, and duty were all aligned perfectly. Nothing could throw it all into chaos, except a new partner, and a murder that could ruin everything she's worked so hard for. Now, as she chases the killer through the criminal underworld, it becomes more clear how much it affects her family, and how, instead of dealing with the stacked deck she had built, she's left with a shuffled pack...
- GenresMystery
108 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 20, 2014
17 people want to read
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July 28, 2016
My first book by this author. Wait, I’m going to put that sentence in the style of this book. Okay *takes a breath* - This is the first fucking book I’ve read by this bitch. Hmm. No, the bitch part doesn’t work. Bitch gets used, sometimes seemingly every other word, because it is referring to a female dog. Not just because the person in question is female. So then, I restructure, again in the style of this book – This fucking book is the first fucking book I’ve read by this fucking writer. There. That works.
Right, so, I’ve had this on my shelves for a while. Noticed it when I was poking around the Kindle Unlimited shelves. Seemed interesting, in theory. A murder mystery involving, I assumed, something like were-dogs. So I put it on my shifters shelf. This was back in May of 2015. The 21st to be exact. I kept putting it off. I kept glancing back to it to see if it should be my next read, and noticing that still no one had tried to read it, or even shelved it (beyond me), so I kept skipping it. It’s a lot of pressure to be the first reader of a book. Or something.
Right. As I said, I put it on my Shifters shelf. Two seconds in I realized two things, well three, but let’s go with the first two. This is not a book about were-anythings. No shifters here. And the book involves a woman, which I should have gotten by the description but got distracted by the woman’s name, Prince of Sylvan, and picture on the cover of the book. A biped dog. In a dress shirt. And tie. With no obvious breasts. The third thing I noticed immediately is that Prince is a bitch in more than one way. Or, to put it another way, she’d be a bitch even if she was a female human.
Right, so, Prince is a female biped dog that lives with a pack, the Sylvan pack to be exact, in an office building. She works as a police detective, because she had the desire to do so, though it is somewhat unusual for the dogs. They are quite male dominated, though females can have power, they mostly have power for themselves, then through position. As in, top dog is alpha male. Closely followed not by beta male, but by alpha female. Then beta male, beta female, etc. And the alpha female isn’t alpha female because she’s the alpha’s mate. She’s alpha female because she’s the toughest female. And because breeding the best dogs possible is important, she’s also the alpha’s mate. Like in an arranged marriage kind of way. They hold the positions, so they mate.
I mention all this because Prince is an odd-ball. She’s tough enough to be beta female, but doesn’t challenge the beta female. Because she wants to remain gamma female. High enough to have certain freedom, low enough to not be closely watched (or the other way around? High enough to not be closely watched, low enough to have a certain amount of freedom?). This is important because she doesn’t want to mate with the gamma male. Or any male. She wants to mate with, and here’s that lovely word, ‘her bitch.’ She uses that word a lot. Bitch bitch bitch. Meaning female dog. So, apparently, gamma level takes care of security. This is how Prince was able to go work for the police. And have a bitch.
Story opens with Prince realizing that she can’t keep fighting it any longer. She’s . . . in heat. And she can’t keep from wanting to mate. She’d prefer to mate with her bitch, but the males put out a scent that attracts her. Here’s where I’d say something about how I’d have a certain problem about a female lesbian human becoming overwhelmed with the desire to mate with any and all males around her. But we aren’t talking about a human female lesbian, but a dog female lesbian so . . . I’ll just give that a pass. So, as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, Prince realizes she can’t keep putting it off. So she requests and is granted leave. So she can go off and fuck. Until she’s out of heat.
While on leave, and in the middle of fucking, Prince is called back to work. Lots of swearing, arguing, etc. occurs before Prince reluctantly agrees. Because there’s this dead body, see, and it’s directly related to Prince. As in, it’s the beta male for her pack. And here’s where I’d say something about having a cop directly connected to a murder investigation, being one of the lead cops investigating the murder is, to put it frankly, stupid. You might think I’d now say something like “but she’s a dog so”, but no. It’s still stupid. But whatever, that happened. She’s not the lead investigator, though, at least. She gets partnered with this human dude who smells slightly off. Turns out he’s this “spook” guy. Not really sure what that means, since Prince kept noting how he was “human” and stuff at various points. So he’s a spook and . . . human.
Well, the spook part involves being able to ‘sense’ emotions and ‘read people’. To a certain extent he’s the reason for the fantasy shelf being used, instead of Prince. Because Prince isn’t a shifter. She’s a biped dog. Without fur. Based on some comments here and there, a genetically altered dog, not a fantasy dog. So, she wanders around in human looking skin shaped vaguely, but not completely, like a dog walking on two feet. Who lacks fur.
I got distracted. Where was I in describing the plot? Ah well – Prince and spook human, whose name is something like Sam, are investigating this murder. While Prince is in heat. And fighting rolling over and presenting herself to men.
In terms of a mystery – the mystery plot is actually pretty well constructed. Solid. The only real problem I have with it is having Prince be involved, at all, with the investigation. Considering how close she is to it.
In terms of . . . um . . . science fiction – well, we have these altered biped intelligent dogs, but, other than some mention of ‘splicers’ and indications they were made, there isn’t enough information to examine the science of the science fiction. So, all I can say is – the only science fiction element of the book involves the biped fur-less dogs. Otherwise everything else appears to be ‘modern’. Except for the spooks.
So, in terms of fantasy . . . – again, there’s not enough information to do anything with the ‘fantasy’. Yeah, there are these spooks that have the ability to ‘sense’ others – their emotions, their presence, etc. But . . . there’s nothing else but the idea they exist. Sure, one is involved in the investigation – as the lead investigator, but he just occasionally ‘senses’. Otherwise he’s an ordinary human who grins way too fucking much.
Overall I’d give this a good solid 4.5 stars. If I could.
Right, so, I’ve had this on my shelves for a while. Noticed it when I was poking around the Kindle Unlimited shelves. Seemed interesting, in theory. A murder mystery involving, I assumed, something like were-dogs. So I put it on my shifters shelf. This was back in May of 2015. The 21st to be exact. I kept putting it off. I kept glancing back to it to see if it should be my next read, and noticing that still no one had tried to read it, or even shelved it (beyond me), so I kept skipping it. It’s a lot of pressure to be the first reader of a book. Or something.
Right. As I said, I put it on my Shifters shelf. Two seconds in I realized two things, well three, but let’s go with the first two. This is not a book about were-anythings. No shifters here. And the book involves a woman, which I should have gotten by the description but got distracted by the woman’s name, Prince of Sylvan, and picture on the cover of the book. A biped dog. In a dress shirt. And tie. With no obvious breasts. The third thing I noticed immediately is that Prince is a bitch in more than one way. Or, to put it another way, she’d be a bitch even if she was a female human.
Right, so, Prince is a female biped dog that lives with a pack, the Sylvan pack to be exact, in an office building. She works as a police detective, because she had the desire to do so, though it is somewhat unusual for the dogs. They are quite male dominated, though females can have power, they mostly have power for themselves, then through position. As in, top dog is alpha male. Closely followed not by beta male, but by alpha female. Then beta male, beta female, etc. And the alpha female isn’t alpha female because she’s the alpha’s mate. She’s alpha female because she’s the toughest female. And because breeding the best dogs possible is important, she’s also the alpha’s mate. Like in an arranged marriage kind of way. They hold the positions, so they mate.
I mention all this because Prince is an odd-ball. She’s tough enough to be beta female, but doesn’t challenge the beta female. Because she wants to remain gamma female. High enough to have certain freedom, low enough to not be closely watched (or the other way around? High enough to not be closely watched, low enough to have a certain amount of freedom?). This is important because she doesn’t want to mate with the gamma male. Or any male. She wants to mate with, and here’s that lovely word, ‘her bitch.’ She uses that word a lot. Bitch bitch bitch. Meaning female dog. So, apparently, gamma level takes care of security. This is how Prince was able to go work for the police. And have a bitch.
Story opens with Prince realizing that she can’t keep fighting it any longer. She’s . . . in heat. And she can’t keep from wanting to mate. She’d prefer to mate with her bitch, but the males put out a scent that attracts her. Here’s where I’d say something about how I’d have a certain problem about a female lesbian human becoming overwhelmed with the desire to mate with any and all males around her. But we aren’t talking about a human female lesbian, but a dog female lesbian so . . . I’ll just give that a pass. So, as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, Prince realizes she can’t keep putting it off. So she requests and is granted leave. So she can go off and fuck. Until she’s out of heat.
While on leave, and in the middle of fucking, Prince is called back to work. Lots of swearing, arguing, etc. occurs before Prince reluctantly agrees. Because there’s this dead body, see, and it’s directly related to Prince. As in, it’s the beta male for her pack. And here’s where I’d say something about having a cop directly connected to a murder investigation, being one of the lead cops investigating the murder is, to put it frankly, stupid. You might think I’d now say something like “but she’s a dog so”, but no. It’s still stupid. But whatever, that happened. She’s not the lead investigator, though, at least. She gets partnered with this human dude who smells slightly off. Turns out he’s this “spook” guy. Not really sure what that means, since Prince kept noting how he was “human” and stuff at various points. So he’s a spook and . . . human.
Well, the spook part involves being able to ‘sense’ emotions and ‘read people’. To a certain extent he’s the reason for the fantasy shelf being used, instead of Prince. Because Prince isn’t a shifter. She’s a biped dog. Without fur. Based on some comments here and there, a genetically altered dog, not a fantasy dog. So, she wanders around in human looking skin shaped vaguely, but not completely, like a dog walking on two feet. Who lacks fur.
I got distracted. Where was I in describing the plot? Ah well – Prince and spook human, whose name is something like Sam, are investigating this murder. While Prince is in heat. And fighting rolling over and presenting herself to men.
In terms of a mystery – the mystery plot is actually pretty well constructed. Solid. The only real problem I have with it is having Prince be involved, at all, with the investigation. Considering how close she is to it.
In terms of . . . um . . . science fiction – well, we have these altered biped intelligent dogs, but, other than some mention of ‘splicers’ and indications they were made, there isn’t enough information to examine the science of the science fiction. So, all I can say is – the only science fiction element of the book involves the biped fur-less dogs. Otherwise everything else appears to be ‘modern’. Except for the spooks.
So, in terms of fantasy . . . – again, there’s not enough information to do anything with the ‘fantasy’. Yeah, there are these spooks that have the ability to ‘sense’ others – their emotions, their presence, etc. But . . . there’s nothing else but the idea they exist. Sure, one is involved in the investigation – as the lead investigator, but he just occasionally ‘senses’. Otherwise he’s an ordinary human who grins way too fucking much.
Overall I’d give this a good solid 4.5 stars. If I could.
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