Dog Collar Crime

In their second adventure, Cleary's ( A Tail of Two Murders ) amateur sleuth Jackie Walsh and her retired police dog, Jake, track down the culprit responsible for murder at the local kennel: Melvin Sweeten, kennel owner and breeder of prize-winning basset hounds, is found in a dog run, strangled with a choke collar. Though beloved by his bassets, Melvin was less popular with several people. The night he died, he had a particularly acrimonious meeting with Dog Fanciers Assn. members Thalia Gilmore and Dick Buzone. Even Amy, Mel's quietly unhappy wife, was waiting for her dog-obsessed husband to notice her enough to divorce her. Jackie is sufficiently intrigued to talk to the widow and do some nosing around the dog-show circuit to get a sense of Mel's milieu. Meanwhile Jackie's friend, Lt. Michael McGowan of the Palmer P.D., learns that Mel had more money salted away than seemed possible on his earnings. The tale is lightweight and standard enough that its doggy appeal is its prime one. And readers may be put off by an evidence problem: the murderer fabricated evidence that is presented to us as corroborated by another source. (May)