In one of the Facebook book clubs I’m in, we’re discussing an entire series, a month at a time. The series is Paws and Claws by Krista Davis. I adore this series! The whole town of Wagtail is based around dogs and cats so that would be a fun place to go visit if it was real. For May, we are reading the third book in the series, Murder Most Howl, which happens to be the name of the murder mystery weekend game that the guests at the Sugar Maple Inn in the book are playing. I may just hang around Wagtail and read the fourth book. That way I’ll be a little bit ahead for our June discussion!
My Goodreads review:
Murder Most Howl by Krista Davis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another fun visit to one of my favorite fictional towns, Wagtail! As usual, this one didn’t disappoint at all. It was a murder mystery weekend in January at the Sugar Maple Inn and Holly’s friend Val who owned the pub Hair of the Dog, was one of the people planning it. Val had come up with 100 clues to be placed in the inn and around various businesses. Players collected fake weapons which allowed them to find out secrets about their fellow players. This was a great idea to boost business in January but no one counted on a real murder, later followed by an attempted murder to complicate things!
I loved how the weekend also included letting people interact with various dogs from the Wagtail If the Dog Fits program. Three dogs got their forever homes that weekend and Trixie, Gingersnap and some of the guest dogs and cats got extra playmates for a few days.
As with the previous books, this one was a page turner and had me guessing the whole time who the killer was. I was pretty surprised at the end and the interesting reasoning/plotting. The take down was great, assisted by who else, one of the soon to be adopted dogs, Rooster, whose name got changed to Duke.
I missed the presence of Holly’s grandma Oma and her good friend Rose (Holmes’s grandma) but I do love Mr. Huckle who did an amazing job of filling in. At the beginning it explained Oma and Rose were on a two week relaxation cruise. When Oma returned, she was super proud of Holly and how she’d managed to keep her cool despite a murder, power outages, blizzards and everything else that happened that weekend. I’d like to stay in Wagtail awhile so I might just start the fourth book soon!
Cuddle Up With a Cozy Mystery 