At the start of Clement’s sprightly fifth Dixie Hemingway mystery (after 2009’s Cat Sitter on a Hot Tin Roof
), the Siesta Key, Fla., pet sitter and former cop takes an instant liking to Jaz, a mixed-race pubescent girl she first meets at the vet, where Jaz has brought an injured wild rabbit. A nervous man claiming to be Jaz’s stepfather (“he looked like a junior high school principal who had learned too late that he hated kids”) admits he accidentally hit the rabbit in his car. Later, three young thugs looking for Jaz confront Dixie at the home of one of Dixie’s clients. Dixie’s homicide detective love interest, Lt. Jean-Pierre Guidry, suspects the three are connected to the knifing murder of a local elderly man, and the chase is on to find the thugs before they get to Jaz. Smooth prose, a lush background, and engaging animals—in particular, Big Bubba, a talkative African gray parrot who loves to watch police shows on TV—make for a fine-feathered read. (Jan.)
