The second book of hers I picked up at a yard sale a few weeks ago. Unlike the first one, 'Black Ribbon', I didn't find this one so entrenched in the language and mindset of the dog show world that it bordered on the unreadable. Yes, it's still set at a dog show and understanding a little about dog shows enhances the reading. The mystery part of the book also commences from page 1, though you have to get in a while to connect that scene to the rest of the book.Conant does use a lot of obscure referencing during the course of the book, something I also noticed in the other book as well as the preview of the next book in the series. I don't really care for it because I often failed to see the connection. At one point, she's referencing Michelangelo and his paintings of Adam and Eve and trying to connect it to dogs, but for me, it was a waste of space.I've seen her written up as the Lilian Jackson Braun of dog mysteries, but having read all the 'Cat Who...' books, I can tell you that Conant doesn't hold even a small candle to Braun. Will I read more of her books? Sure, but only if I find them at used book sales or somewhere else cheap as I did these two books. Certainly won't hunt her books out at Barnes and Noble to pay full price for them. They're not worth the expenditure.
