Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 A dog-gone winner! August 18, 2008
Suzanne Briggs (York, ME)
As a dog lover and fan of cozy mysteries, this first installment in the Melanie Travis series caught my attention. And it had me turning page after page!!! "A Pedigree to Die For" has single mom Melanie and her poodle-breeding (and kinda stuffy) Aunt Peg in pursuit of the person responsible for murder and dog-napping (not sure which took more precedence). The book untangled some of the intricacies about dog shows and the people who are addicted to them.
Melanie is a very real, modern-day mom who juggles sleuthing with the needs of her five-year old son. Her character is like Goldy Schultz in Diane Mott Davidson's series (another winner, in my "book"), far more interesting than Joanne Fluke's or Mary Daheim's cast, and just a couple of notches below Janet Evanovich's inimitable Stephanie Plum. And THAT's saying something!
I'm so excited that this series has so many books. I'm going to unleash myself on them......
 Good start to a fun series November 23, 2007
Naor Wallach (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
This book is the first in a series that features sleuth Melanie Travis and the dog show world. Since it is a first book, there is a lot of introductory material here. For instance, we get to meet Melanie and find out that she is a 30 year old divorced single mother whose latest boyfriend just married a showgirl in Vegas. She has a four year old son named Davey who is a typical handful of a four year old. She is a school teacher who is also looking for additional funds to be able to continue to afford living in Connecticut and it is summer time. Besides her son, her family also consists of her brother Frank, who is introduced as a do-nothing kind of person. Melanie's parents died some years before in a car crash, so we are told that her only other family is an uncle/aunt pair and another aunt who is a nun.
The mystery starts when her uncle Max has a heart attack in the middle of the night in the kennel where he is apparently checking on his prize Standard Poodles. Here we are introduced to the world of dog breeders and dog shows. Aunt Peg believes that Max's death is not accidental as the prize stud dog - Beau - is missing but she cannot get the police interested in the case. So, Frank is darfted, but since he is not particularly reliable, Melanie gets the call instead. Since Melanie knows nothing about dogs, Poodles, or dog shows and dog breeders, a big part of this volume is devoted to explaining some basic facts about the shows and how they work.
Peg has never liked her husband's sister - Rose. This dislike spills over when Rose reveals that she is leaving the convent and will marry a priest who is defrocking for the occasion. Now things start getting interesting as Peg has also taken a liking to a man by the name of Sam Driver and she is driving Melanie and Sam together. Melanie is on cruise control in her life and has no interest in gorgeous Sam - especially since Peg is so pushy about it; besides Melanie thinks that Sam might be involved in the crime!
So, one thing leads to another and we learn more about Melanie, her relatives, Sam, the dog show circuit, and dog breeders and breeding. Eventually, a murder is committed. Melanie also finds out about the root cause of the friction between Rose and Peg; more about how and why her parents died in that car crash; and manages to restore some kind of relationship in her fractious family.
By the end of the book, I was rooting for Melanie to solve the mystery, although by then, it was obvious who had done it and why. Nonetheless, the author managed to throw a good curve ball in at the end with some esoteric fact about dog breeding causing the bad guy's scheme to fall apart.
I really enjoyed this read and am looking forward to reading more about Melanie's adventures in the dog world - especially as we find out how much taken she is with the Standard Poodles and how much her son would love to have a pet!
Having read some of the other volumes in this series before, I would recommend that you pick this one up first as it establishes a lot of the background that is kind of assumed in the next volumes. This is especially true of the hilarious family situations. Oh, by the way, Max truly does die of a heart attack and is not murdered after all...
 Where are the good dogs books?! April 11, 2007
Smeddley
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was so happy to find a dog book (there are cats everywhere, but few authors do good dog books) but was soon disappointed. First, they were Poodles, one of my least favorite dogs. Second, it was about dogs shows, one of my least favorite `sports' (and I use that term very loosely here) - MUTTS RULE! Adopt your next dog from the pound! And lastly, it really wasn't all that well written. I didn't like the characters, the plot was skimpy and uninteresting, and I really wasn't drawn into the book at all. I will continue my search for a good dog series, and will almost certainly not read more of these.
Couldn't Even Get To Page 100 January 14, 2006
A Reader
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a dog lover, this book caught my eye on the shelf of my local bookstore. I wish I'd left it there.
Several reviewers said it gets better as it goes along, both in this installment and in the series. I can't get that far. Every time I pick the book up to read it, I end up falling asleep with the book in my hand after a few pages.
Every character comes across as grating and unlikable. I find everyone referring to the female dogs as "bitches" annoying (proper or not). I hate when authors give their female heroines small children that add nothing to the story other than to be dragged around with their mothers on sleuthing expeditions. There's just nothing about this book that makes me want to keep going to find out if it gets better.
I have a friend who just adopted a poodle puppy. I'm sure she'll appreciate the gift and like it better than I did.
This Series Gets Soooo Much Better.... June 3, 2004
K. A. Stevenson (Tucson)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am currently on my 5th book in this series by Laurien Berenson and it has been terrific to witness how far she progresses as a writer with each new book. If you like dogs or especially if you are involved in showing dogs, this is a wonderful series.Admittedly, "A Pedigree to Die For" started out a little slow in holding my interest. (But read it anyway, because the first few books really give you the "background" on the characters for the really great books later on!) Melanie Travis is a 30-yr. old special needs teacher who is coping with the demands of raising a 4-yr. old son alone. Her divorced husband is not in the picture and neither are his child support payments! When Melanie's Uncle Max dies under mysterious circumstances, a new friendship forms with Aunt Peg. The only problem is that the man Melanie suspects the most - Sam Driver, is the man that her Aunt Peg keeps trying to throw her together with! While Melanie is trying to solve the murder, the reader is educated about the various aspects of dog competitions. I found it to be really inspirational. And no, Melanie does not get involved in showing dogs...yet. I am so glad that I gave this series a chance!
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