A Good Dog's Guide to Murder is the 8th Paws & Claws cozy mystery by Krista Davis. Released 6th Sept 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in mass market paperback, library binding, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a cute pet-friendly small-town bookish cozy with an appealingly eccentric cast of characters of both the two- and four-legged variety. Main protagonist Holly has a lot on her plate (literally and figuratively): she's dealing with her mom moving back to Wagtail, arranging the local gingerbread house contest, managing the Wagtail Inn during the busy holiday season, oh, and helping solve a murder uncovered by her suspiciously intelligent pets.
It's a cozy so the language is clean and the violence happens off-page. The author has included bonus recipes at the back of the book which are appealing and even include a few for pets (clearly specified in each recipe). The mystery is self contained in this book so it works pretty well as a standalone. There are currently 8 books extant in the series, making it a good choice for a long binge- or buddy-read.
Four stars. Recommended for fans of light small-town cozies featuring lightly anthropomorphic intelligent pets helping solve crimes. Fans of Jenn McKinlay, Ellery Adams, and Laurie Cass will likely already have this series on their radar, but if not, it's well worth a look.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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