Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund - Blaize Clement

Readers raved about Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, the fabulous first novel from bestselling author Blaize Clement. Now, everyone's favorite pet-sitting sleuth Dixie Hemingway is back with another riveting tail about the four-legged fight against crime.

Everybody who loves dachshunds knows about their adventurous streak. So when Mame, the elderly dachshund in Dixie Hemingway's care, gets away from her to investigate a mound of mulch, Dixie isn't surprised. What the dachshund digs up, however, is not only a surprise but a trigger for a whole new pile of jolting events that puts Dixie at the center of a hunt for a psychopathic killer--someone who fears Dixie saw him leaving the scene of a brutal murder. In the lovely seaside community of Sarasota, Florida, another desperate chase to collar a criminal is about to begin...

I was looking forward to this book after having enjoyed the first in the Dixie Hemingway series last year. Dixie is a pet sitter, a former deputy, with a personal tragedy of her own (that led to her career change) that keeps on finding dead bodies when she is out walking dogs (or feeding cats). This time it was actually the dog who found the dead body, a famous circus personality who seemed to have his share of enemies starting with his own brother. And Dixie soon discovers she is in danger because the killer believes she can identify him. If her natural instincts would lead her to investigate the fact that she is being targeted is an added incentive, even with her brother's, and his cop boyfriend, protection Dixie knows she has to find who the killer is soon, especially after the widow turns up dead too.

I did like the mystery and the turns and twists leading us to the whom and the why but I must confess that something made me a bit uncomfortable. This is a cosy mystery and the human deaths were really clean, no gore and not much detail, but there were a lot of animals being hurt, having their legs broken. Too many and it just didn't sit well with me.

I do like Dixie's interactions with the animals though, they are funny and believable. The mystery is also engaging and easy to read. Although I am not exactly a fan of circus I actually the information about them was very interesting. Clement tends to touch on subjects that are sometimes not very cosy as motivation for the murders but that is definitely not a problem for me. The story includes only a hint of romance but at the end of this story we are treated to a teaser of a possible love triangle, I sure hope that will be solved fast and neatly.

So I am now looking forward to book 3 in the series.

Grade: 4/5