Oodles of Poodles by Linda O. Johnston

Oodles of Poodles by Linda O. Johnston ISBN-13: 9780425259962 Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: February 5, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Has Hollywood gone to the dogs? Pet rescuer and animal shelter manager Lauren Vancouver is observing production on a new movie called Sheba’s Story. The title character—a white Miniature poodle—is played by many similar-looking poodles, and to make sure no animals are harmed, Lauren’s friend, veterinarian Carlie Stellan, and Grant, a handsome representative from the American Humane Association, are on location. But when the film’s director is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run after arguing with Carlie about animal safety, it’s up to Lauren to clear her friend’s name and catch a killer before someone else ends up in oodles of deadly trouble.


My Review:
Oodles of Poodles is a cozy mystery. This book is the fourth in a series. You don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, and this book didn't spoil the whodunit of a previous books.

The heroine says that she has no imagination. By the end of the book, I thoroughly agreed with that statement. The only method she could come up with to investigate the murder was to go around asking everyone involved with the filming who they thought the murderer was. When that didn't turn up anything useful, she then asked everyone if they did it and, even if they didn't, what motive they would have had to murder the guy. Unsurprisingly, this turned up nothing useful and managed to anger everyone she talked to.

She was on the set representing her rescue shelter's rich patron, and yet she got upset when her angering everyone caused him to reconsider using her as his representative on the set. It didn't occur to her that this might be a result of her behavior. And when she set a trap for her suspected murderer, it didn't occur to her that one result of her stunt would be to leave people with a negative impression of her animal rescue operation that she's so self-righteously proud of.

So I wasn't impressed with the heroine and sometimes didn't like her attitude toward others. Though there were some subtle clues, this wasn't really a clue-puzzle mystery and whodunit was uncovered mostly by chance. There was a lot of nice detail about how an ideal, well-funded animal rescue shelter is run and on filming an animal movie.

There were no graphic sex scenes. There was a minor amount of explicit bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this novel to dog lovers who wish they could spend every moment of their day playing with dogs or those interested in some behind-the-scenes on how animal movies are filmed.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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