When the police find a corpse in a barn housing an illegal puppy mill, Griffin Fitzpatrick is called in. The farm’s owner has been breeding and selling expensive breeds, raking in over a million dollars. The police suspect the farmer, but need to learn who the victim was and why she was killed. There are over fifty witnesses to the crimes, but they’re scared, dirty, and not used to life outside their cages…because they’re all dogs.
While Griff works with one of them at home, someone tries to adopt all the dogs from the rescue organization before anyone else can. It’s up to Griff to find out who killed the woman, but he’s distracted by some startling facts that surface about his sister’s disappearance. He just hopes he’s not barking up the wrong tree.
Ok, it's official ... I have become addicted to these Animal Instincts books. We have Griff Fitzpatrick, the animal communicator who loves the animals but has studied animal behavior and puts that together with human behavior and figures out what is going on. He has become good at solving murder mysteries. But what has me hooked is that it's like one continuous novel. Each book comes to a clear end but with the succeeding book Griff grows and changes. That's what has me hooked. This guy goes from being one who treats from life, little by little coming out of his "stay in the background" mindset. He had a personal tragedy and in each book he learns more of the truth about his sister's disappearance about a decade ago. Meanwhile he is flirting with a police investigator, Sheila, and in each book their romance becomes a little more involved.
In this story Griff is hired by another police department to talk to the animals in a puppy mill to find out what they know about the woman buried at the bottom of the barn. I admit the description of the puppy mill when Griff arrives is little hard to stomach. Like Griff, I feel for the poor animals. One of the pups, a female corgie, becomes attached to Griff and he now has a new family member, currently called "Number 32" which is what the owner of the puppy mill referred to her as. Griff goes into investigative mode and through some involved footwork is able to discover the identity of the deceased woman and who murdered her and the owner of the puppy mill. Of course, luck plays a part in Griff's investigation but he is a real adjunct to any police department. Immediately upon finishing this I had to pick up the next in the series.
Puppy Mills, Puppy Kills, the third of six books in Chloe Kendrick's Animal Instincts series, can be read as a stand alone mystery however it would be better read as part of the series. There is a slight recap of previous stories within the first few pages if you choose to go the stand alone route. The author has a good idea to build her story around but her writing still lacks the various emotions of the "real" world leaving it difficult for the reader to connect with the characters. One dimensional characters and unemotional narratives are not what I seek when selecting a book so I will most likely avoid the rest of this series. A 3 star rating may seem odd given my criticism (and maybe it is overly generous) however the author's thoughts and ideas were quite good and the whodunnit challenging.
Who anonymously left the message of the puppy mill and the body?
An ugly look of a puppy mill! Grif is called in to assist at the scene of a puppy mill. He is there to see if he can discover what has happened by "talking" to the dogs. Grif is known (scoffed at) as a dog whisperer. Grif is haunted by the disappearance of his sister years ago and keeps a low profile. Detective Green helps by giving tidbits of information. Grif discovers the killer, a surprise! Good book with past demons and present emotions that must be dealt with by Grif.
I am so impressed with this author and her hero, Griffin Fitzpatrick.
This time Griff is called to a puppy mill in rural Ohio to "talk" to the 56 dogs which are being rescued from an inhumane situation. During the course of moving the animals, a corpse is found in a sludge pit beneath the barn. Suspicion immediately falls on Fred Zook, the owner-operator of the puppy mill. But Griff wonders if someone is trying to frame Zook for the murder ...
Since puppy mills are horrible places and puppies that are sold are rarely if ever show quality, this was not very realistic. But since the book is fiction anyway, I'll give it a pass. I did enjoy the story. I'll try the next one in the series.