The Dog Park Murders is the first in a new small-town mystery/romance series by Angela Barker. Released 25th Aug 2026 by Penguin Random House on their Harlequin imprint, it's 304 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.
Everything dogs. Wall to wall dogs (it -is- called the dog park murders). MC Juliette is an animal groomer, a bit hapless but always upbeat. It aims for humorous, and sometimes gets close, but it's more cutesy than actually funny. There's some rough language (a few "f-bombs") and some sexual innuendo, but overall fairly tame. It's got proximity romance grumpy+sunshine, and amateur sleuthing (the murder victim is found in the dog park strangled with one of Juliette's custom dog leashes), utterly incompetent local police, and a satisfying if expected denouement and resolution. There's some spicy bits, so possibly not entirely safe for work/commute read.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 31 minutes and is read by Carly Bloom. She has a warm alto voice and a neutral midatlantic generic accent, and she does a fair job with the dialogue and characters in a range of both male and female voices. Sound and production quality are very high throughout the read.
Three and a half stars. The second book in the series is due out in late 1st quarter 2027 from the same publisher.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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