Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Even the name sounds important. As it should, because Westminster is both the oldest and the most prestigious dog show in America. For two glittering, star studded, nights in February, Madison Square Garden goes to the dogs. Thousands of spectators and dog lovers–millions if you count the TV audience—watch with delight as their favorite breeds line up in the big ring to strut their stuff.
This year my Aunt Peg, noted breeder of Standard Poodles, will be judging the Non-Sporting Group on Monday night. It’s a huge honor to be asked to officiate. The event is bound to be the highlight of her judging career. I, along with my husband and our two sons will be on hand to watch and enjoy every minute of the canine spectacle and Aunt Peg’s part in it.
Before that happens, however, we have to get through the busy pre-show weekend. Our local Poodle club is hosting a judges’ symposium in Manhattan, with Aunt Peg as the featured speaker. She’s an old hand at teaching seminars, so that part should be easy. But as I’ve learned from past experience, whenever Aunt Peg is involved in something, there are bound to be complications.
This time, it turns out that a rival Poodle Club has arranged to hold a specialty show at the same time as the symposium. It’s also being held in the same downtown hotel. None of that is a coincidence. President of the other club is a man named Victor Durbin. At one time he’d been a member of our Connecticut club—until his breeding transgressions had come to light and Aunt Peg had led the charge to have him ousted. Animosity had simmered between the two of them ever since.
I’m a wife and mother, with a job as special needs tutor, and houseful of Standard Poodles. So I’m used to hectic days. But it turns out that running interference between Aunt Peg and Victor throughout Westminster week will catapult my life into a whole new kind of crazy. Things come to a head on Monday evening when Victor attempts to sabotage Aunt Peg’s judging assignment. Their encounter on a New York sidewalk nearly comes to blows.
Thankfully I’m able to avert the worst of the trouble, and we make it to the Garden in time for Aunt Peg to fulfill her media and judging duties. I know I’m not the only one who breathes a sigh of relief later that night when the group judging is finished and my family and I can go home to Connecticut. Aunt Peg remains in the city to attend the dog show on Tuesday, and I go back to work. She and I don’t have a chance to touch base again until Wednesday when I’m awakened from a deep sleep by her early morning phone call.
The news Aunt Peg has called to deliver is shocking. Victor Durbin is dead. He was murdered at Madison Square Garden the previous evening while the Westminster show was taking place. Of course Aunt Peg was in attendance at the time. Along with several thousand other people—and yet she’s the one the police have settled upon as the prime suspect. Someone told them that she and Victor were mortal enemies.
Imagine that.
It suddenly looks as though my life is about to get a lot more interesting.
Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win one (1) print copy of Game of Dog Bones, limited to U.S. residents. Giveaway ends July 1, 2020. Good luck everyone!
Game of Dog Bones is the 25th book in the “Melanie Travis” canine mystery series, coming June 30, 2020.
Standard Poodle owner Melanie Travis is an excellent judge of dogs—and people. But what happens when an unnamed killer emerges at one of the fiercest all-breed competitions ever?
As Greenwich, Connecticut, slows down during a bitterly cold February, Melanie and her spunky Aunt Peg head to the city that never sleeps for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Aunt Peg can’t wait to demonstrate her judging chops on national TV, even after being hounded by frustrating mishaps—all seemingly orchestrated by Victor Durbin, an ousted Paugussett Poodle Club member with a bone to pick. But the bright lights of the show ring grow dim when Victor is found murdered, and she’s the one topping the suspect list . . .
Driven to solve the crime on her aunt’s behalf, Melanie fetches hair-raising clues about the victim. Victor didn’t score many friends with his unethical breeding practices, sketchy puppy café, and penchant for mercilessly scamming others to get ahead. He burned so many bridges that his own business partner admits to being delighted by news of his death. It appears Victor finally toyed with the wrong person, and as Melanie digs up more chilling evidence, she realizes that exonerating Aunt Peg means confronting a murderer who’s in it to win it . . .
Purchase Link
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About the author
Laurien Berenson is the bestselling author of the Melanie Travis canine mystery series. Her books revolve around the world of dog shows, and there are currently twenty-five titles including the newest one, Game Of Dog Bones. Berenson has won the Maxwell Award for Fiction from the Dog Writers Assoc. of America and the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. Her series has also been nominated for Agatha and Macavity awards. She and her husband live on a farm in Kentucky, surrounded by horses and dogs. Visit her website at laurienberenson.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter.
All comments are welcomed.
Nice cover. I liked the blurb. It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this entire series! Loved watching the characters evolve throughout the books. Hope they continue for a long time 💕
Thank you, Sue. I hope the series continues for a long time too.
Excited for this a latest in the series! Just trying to decide whether to order a physical copy or for my Kindle! My favorite dog-show-world-based series!
Hi, Wonderful author and books.Love the series.
All of Laurien’s books are awesome. Love the cover on her new one, and Westminster is one of my favorite shows. I can hardly wait to read this new book!
I fell in love 🥰 with the adorable dog 🐶 on the cover right away….so cute! Sounds like a really exciting cozy and can’t wait to read it! Thank you so much for the chance to win! 😊
What a cute title for a book. Would like to read this book. This is the 25th book in the canine mystery series. Wow. I need to get busy reading the other 24. books. I love dogs and mystery books.
Linda, thank you for giving the series a try.
Of all the series I’ve read, this is still my favorite.
Love Melanie Travis and her dig adventures! Thank you fur the opportunity to win thus book!
Carol, thank you for the lovely compliment. You have absolutely made my day.
Wow, it’s been 25 books! I can’t believe it, so excited for the latest.
Love the cover on this latest in such a fun series. Poor Aunt Peg though! What a nasty mess.
Thanks for the chance to win a copy.
What a cute cover, thank you for the chance to win a copy of the book.
wfnren at aol dot com
I’ve read all the Melanie Travis books and can’t wait to read this one, too. The characters have become my friends and it’s been a while since I’ve been able to catch up on the gossip of what’s happening in their lives.
This sounds like another great book in a wonderful series. I can’t wait to read it!
Really have been looking forward to this book
I love these books, I am working my way through the series!
#sirRobertRocket told me this is a must read. Any book with a Standard like him must be great.
Please pass along my thanks to SirRobertRocket!
Love Melanie Travis mysteries. Have read every book. Looking forward to this one.
I have read all of Laurien’s books and I can’t wait to read this one. Loved the little poodle puppy on the front. I am a poodle owner.
Loved reading “A day in the life” my favorite Author. and series. It’s almost time! I’m rereading Bite Club to get ready
Love following Melanie Travis and her aunt Peg’s poodle escapades! This one I can’t wait to read!
Very much looking forward to reading this new installment! Love the cover art!
I have so enjoyed reading this series. Aunt Peg and many of the characters remind me of so many I’ve known in the dog world and this is one of the few dog series I’ve read where I don’t have to suspend belief to read it. The terms, the whole vocabulary is true to life, and I’ve yet read a part where I went, nope, that isn’t the way it is.
Refreshing! Add in that the stories always flow along, and the people and dogs are so believable and the main characters have sucked me in to caring for them and wanting to know what happens in their lives, so I am ready for each new book in the series.
I’ve been panting for a new book in this series, love them all, love how family life is brought into it and maturing of a divorved couple who go on to put kids first and all the depth of character that would be a great story sans murders, but oh those mysteries are wonderful
Love this series! Can’t wait to read “Game Of Dog Bones”. Thanks for the chance.
Twenty five books, all are fun reads. I look forward to reading this book soon.
Loved reading! So much fun to see characters brought to life!
The cover has won my heart. Having read other’s in this series I am sure this one will be a fun read too. Thanks for the insight into it.
I’ve not read this series yet, but is on my TBR. Thanks Dru for this “a day in the life”. Wow 25th book? Congrats to Laurien Berenson! nani_geplcs(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thank you, Sheryl!
That face on the cover is almost too much!
I love this series–I get a kick out of Aunt Peg and how she obviously thinks dogs are superior to humans. Looking forward to this.
You mean they aren’t?? 😉
Always enjoy the books in the Melanie Travis series!
Another guaranteed winner and a likely contender for BIS (Best in Series). Can’t wait to visit Westminster with Melanie and Aunt Peg!
The dog is so cute on book cover makes you want to read it.
I read a couple of the first books in this series and would love the opportunity to catch up.
Can’t wait to read it! Love Melanie Travis.
Congratulations! I love this author’s books. Captivating.
Love these books! One of my favorite memories is of reading the one that takes place at PCA, while sitting across the table from Annie Clark, who was also reading the same book.
Sounds like a great addition to the series.
Soo looking forward to Game of Dog Bones. Best series ever!!
New series for me, love the cute dog on the cover!
I’m looking forward to seeing how Melanie clears Aunt Peg.
I love this series. It has great supporting characters, including the dogs.
Great book title and cover! Thanks for the chance to win it!
In this time of so many dog events being cancelled, an adventure with Aunt Peg and Melanie’s tag-along family will be sure to give entertainment and assuage our need for dog people!
I love this series! I can’t wait to read it!
Love this entire series and can’t wait to read more.
I have enjoyed multiple books in this series due to great stories and what first drew me to the book was that our daughter is named Melanie. It’s so strange how some particular thing brings us to want to read a book or series! I’m almost in disbelief that this will be book 25!!!! Congratulations for tomorrow’s
Release!
Thank you, Cynthia! I’m excited about this book. 🙂
**** WINNER ****
Game of Bones is Nancy Schwenkner
Congratulations!