Book Review: Muzzled (2014)

I was in the mood for something different when I was at the library a couple weeks ago so, rather than picking out a book written by an author I was familiar with, I wound up choosing one completely at random. The end result was this book.

I was able to finish the book earlier this week, while sitting at the ice rink waiting for my daughter to get done with her class. After finishing it, my opinion of it was a little mixed but, overall, I think I liked it.

One of the things I found I liked, in particular, about this book is the way the author takes the time to show us Dr. Kate's human side. Not every mystery novel does that and the ones that do are considerably better because it makes it much easier to relate to the person, especially when they are the ones also narrating the story.

I also thought the mystery itself was intriguing. The murdered couple was wealthy and they had dogs that were also worth a lot of money. And, while their estranged daughter/only heir seemed like the most likely suspect, she had an air-tight alibi and there were plenty of other people around town that seemed to have plenty of reasons to want them dead.

Another thing that made this book intriguing was the fact Kate was a veterinarian with no real police experience. This made her investigation into the murders a little more interesting because she didn't always know the right questions to ask or how to look for clues. In fact, some of her progress on the case came almost completely by accident. As a result of this, the book wasn't quite as predictable as I thought it would be (though I did figure out who the killer was before she did).

My only real complaint about the book is I thought it spent way too much time talking about her ex-boyfriend, his new fiancee and her feelings toward both. I probably wouldn't have cared as much if it had anything to do with the case at all. But, since it didn't, it honestly made me wonder if the author was using this book to work through relationship issues of her own.

As I said, I wasn't a fan of all the time spent on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. But, overall, I thought this was an entertaining and somewhat unique murder mystery. I would recommend it as a result.

My Grade: B