I've read a bunch of Conant's books in the last few months and this was one of the better ones. As an early book in the Holly Winter series, 'Paws Before Dying' features some characters who show up again later in the series, but the inclusion of Winter's 16 year-old cousin, who is a grown woman in later books, here is a sign Conant is taking a bit of literary license here, as Winter's 2 Alaskan Malamutes are among those recurring characters, but they don't seem to age as quickly as regular dogs do as the books go on.In this book, Winter is focused on obedience training her dogs, particularly her female, Kimi, who proves a good match to be handled by Winter's young cousin, Leah. As mentioned, Leah is a regular character in the later books in the series, but this appears to be her debut, as her parents dumped her off with Holly for the summer so they could travel Europe and Leah could study for her SATs and hopefully become enamored with nearby Harvard. Like a typical teenager, Leah is more into fashion and boys than dogs, until she discovers that tagging along to Holly's training classes and handling Kimi brings her into close contact with other young handlers.Meanwhile, Rose, one of Holly's acquaintances from class, is found dead in the park where the classes are held. Because Rose was training her poodle in a tennis court surrounded by chain link fence during a thunderstorm, and was found by the gate, it is initially assumed that she was either struck by lightening or the fence was when she was touching it. However, there are elements that don't add up to Holly, who suspects murder, and she finds plenty of people who would have motive to do it. From the dog world, there is the owner of another poodle, whose biggest competition was the team of Rose and her poodle, as well as a show judge who Rose lodged a complaint against regarding illegal activity she felt he was a part of. Suspects outside of the dog world include some of Rose's neighbors, such as a family whose son had Rose for a teacher about whom she filed a suspected child abuse report plus an apparent white supremacist family who doesn't much care for Jewish people, though Rose herself was not Jewish, just married to a man who was. Her in-laws also are possible suspects, as Rose's husband was shunned by his family when the couple married, but is suddenly welcomed back openly following Rose's death.Holly is determined to get to the bottom of who or what killed Rose, while still keeping an eye on Leah and making sure her dogs get the attention they deserve. What bugs me about Conant's books is probably an issue with other novels on the short side, that too much is coincidental in the plot. A couple examples: The youngest son of the white supremacists happens to take his dog to the training class and catches Leah's eye. Holly meets the family who Rose reported for suspected child abuse while investigating a story for her dog magazine, even though Rose was a veteran teacher and had probably taught kindergarten to hundreds of local kids. I suppose this sort of overlap is needed to keep the book concise and moving, it just gets a little obvious after reading a few similar books. All told though, Conant had me guessing until the end and I didn't see where she was going with the case until the final chapters. Not a book I necessarily need to read again, but enjoyable nonetheless.
