Play Book Tag discussion

Tavish, mourning her dead fiancé, even though she has just been told she was one of two fiancées, gets a call from an animal shelter saying that they have her dog--but she doesn't even own one. The man insists that the dog's chip has her name and contact information in it, and that if she doesn't come and get the dog, it will be destroyed that day. When Tavish shows up (she's not fond of dogs, per se, but doesn't want to see one destroyed), she knows her--it's Marley, who is John Coyote's dog, and she was commissioned to do a drawing of him with her. However, when Tavish goes to see Coyote to return Marley, he's dead by foul play, but when she calls it in, the body disappears.

Marley becomes her constant companion, because not only does Marley love her, she wreaks havoc if left alone. Soon she is drawn into a confusing mystery, which is not made any easier by her mother, who is pressuring her into taking a new position with one of her companies. She also meets an FBI agent, Sawyer, and their paths keep crossing. What's more, Marley is also drawn to Sawyer.

Sawyer, FBI agent, has been working to solve the mystery of the theft of native artifacts and artwork, but is soon drawn into figuring out what is going on with Tavish. The problem is, she's beautiful even though she doesn't realize it, and he is drawn to her like a magnet.

There were a number of things I liked about this novel, including Tavish and Sawyer (plus Marley, of course). It wasn't overly simple so even though a couple of things were rather obvious, there were still plenty of things to keep this interesting. That said, there were a few little annoying things (such as saying a phone number was 7 digits, 9 with the area code, but American area codes have 3 digits, so the math is off) and a few other things like that. Plus I wasn't convinced about the depth of thought behind some of the mystery people involved. Sure, Evelyn doesn't know much about them, but I felt that neither did Parks--I could be wrong, of course, and she could have fabricated intricate characterizations for them in her notes, but I couldn't see it and thought that a few of them were rather shallow and lacked depth.

Nevertheless, I plan to read more by Parks at some point.