To Catch a Treat

Barkery & Biscuits Mystery, #2

Linda O Johnston

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Date of Publication: May 8, 2016
Number of pages: 312
Cover Artist: Christina Hess

When a Dog-Snatching Scheme Leads to Murder, Carrie Must Sniff Out the Truth

Carrie Kennersly, veterinary technician and owner of the Barkery and Biscuits bake shop, agrees to a day of hiking with her brother Neal—mostly because she wants to meet and critique his latest romantic interest, Janelle Blaystone. But instead of judging her, Carrie feels only sympathy for Janelle, whose beloved black Labrador, Go, was recently dognapped.

Janelle thinks the culprit is Ada Arnist, a wealthy homeowner spotted at the dog park where Go was stolen. Soon after Janelle confronts Ada, though, the woman is found dead. With Janelle and Neal on the suspect list, Carrie must solve the mystery before the police bark up the wrong tree.

Interview: 
Please welcome Linda O. Johnston to Musings and Ramblings for a little Author Q&A.

*Offers Linda a cup of black coffee and a plate of chocolate cookies.*

What makes you unique as a writer?
I think it's my focus on both mysteries and romances. I currently write four series: two cozy mystery series and miniseries for each of two different Harlequin lines. My current mystery series are the Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries and my Superstition Mysteries. Am I busy? Yes. Do I love it. Absolutely! So much so, in fact, that my new release TO CATCH A TREAT is my 42nd published novel. Oh, and by the way, I now include dogs in as many of my books as I can. All of my mystery series, including two I wrote previously--my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries, and my Pet Rescue Mysteries, feature dogs. My Harlequin Nocturne paranormal romances feature canines, too--although some of them are shapeshifters!

What are your five biggest distractions from writing?
Well, two of them are my dogs, especially my older one, Lexie--although Mystie gives me orders, too. They both like to interrupt my train of thought, often to go outside or to get treats just because. Then there are crossword puzzles on my computer, although I'll sometimes do one when I'm not exactly sure how a scene should develop, and changing what I'm focusing on may help my subconscious figure it out. Not sure there are two more, though.

What’s the best vacation/trip you ever had?
I tend to like cruises, so the first answer that came to mind was one of several Alaskan cruises I've taken where afterwards we also explored Denali park and I got to see more of the wildlife there. But my family has also taken a cruise to Australia and New Zealand cruise, and the wildlife in that part of the world is spectacular!

What’s your favorite rainy day activity?
Writing and talking with my dogs. But those are also my favorite non-rainy day activity, which is a good thing since I live in Los Angeles and we don't get a whole lot of those rain days.

What are your 5 favorite words?
Cynophilist - dog lover. That's me!
Cavalier, as in Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, my absolute favorite dogs.
Unterlathorney, a nonword that was my title by mistake on a letter sent to me thanks to my handwriting being unreadable. At the time I was both a practicing attorney and a writer. It should have said "writer/attorney" but instead was unterlathorney.
Grandma, because I am one, and
L.A., which is two words, or actually two letters, but I really enjoy living there!

Thanks for sharing with us today.

Review: 

The first book in this series, Bite the Biscuit, was a great read for me, so I was excited to see the next book in the series come out. In the first book, Carrie helped solve a murder, because she was a suspect. In this second book, she is involved in the beginning, to help out someone her brother is interested in, and to make sure that he doesn't also become a suspect. But as the case progresses, she becomes much more interested in the dog-nappings that are probably linked to the death.  As an animal lover, finding the dogs and restoring them to their loving families is Carrie's primary goal. The fact that who ever is stealing dogs, might know something about the murder is just gravy.

I really liked that the story was smart. It was rare for Carrie to do something dangerous or "dumb". She kept people informed of her whereabouts and mostly did her investigating and interrogating in public. Plus, none of the information she gathered was obtained in any questionable means. It was all a matter of asking the the right questions to the right people. Of course, there were leads that didn't go anywhere and information that wasn't useful. But Carrie used logic and common sense to put the important (to her) puzzle pieces together. I had my suspicions about one of the bad guys, but the other caught me totally by surprise. Quite like Carrie.

One of the few things that disappointed me in this book, was that Carrie spent quite a bit of time in her head. I would have liked for there to have been more dialogue scenes. I enjoyed Carrie's interactions with her friends and family and wish there had been more of them.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and could really feel the canine love coming through on every page. I gave it 3 stars.

Thanks to Great Escapes for the opportunity to read and review the book.

Giveaway: 

Author Bio:

Linda O. Johnston’s first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year. Since then, Linda, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, has published more short stories, novellas, and 38 romance and mystery novels, including the Pet Rescue Mystery Series, a spinoff from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and Harlequin Romantic Suspense as well as the Alpha Force paranormal romance miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. She additionally writes the Superstition Mysteries for Midnight Ink. Her latest cozy mystery series, the Barkery and Biscuits Mysteries are also from Midnight Ink.

To connect with the author online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

I have read Linda O. Johnston's other series, so I was excited when I heard about BITE THE BISCUIT in her new Barkery & Biscuits Mystery series. I loved it!

This series is off to a wonderful start! Ms. Johnston has written a good solid mystery, with very enjoyable characters. And once again, her love for animals shines through.

I really enjoyed the idea of the profession for the protagonist. Owning her own pet food bakery is so cool. I would be in a place like that all the time for my pup!

If you're a fan of Linda O. Johnston's other titles, you are going to love BITE THE BISCUIT as much as I did!

Veterinary Technician Carrie Kennersly, loves animals, loves. working with them and being around them. While she loves her job the dream of owning her own business is a dream that she is realizing with the purchase of a bakery which she plans on splitting up to make half a bakery for 4 legged clients. Sadly, there is a sour puss in town that wishes her doom in her new business. She does it publicly, loud and proud and then turns up cold and dead. Then when it’s found out that a bakery treat was next to her body guess who their number one suspect is ? The detectives come in and the hunt for the truth starts.
I loved the idea of the story, but several excessive actions rubbed me the wrong way. The main character washed her hands so many times, and told us about hygiene for her human clients, over and over. She was overly safety conscious the story would stop so she could tie her dog up, talking about the steps she took to keep him from running out in the street. Hugging, she hugged Biscuit, she went back to hug Biscuit goodbye, she couldn’t wait to hug Biscuit. Okay enough already. I had too many eye roll moments to fully enjoy the story.Yes, all great things but this story was not the place for safe dog preaching which is what it felt like. If only the author would have held back this would have been a much better read.
The mystery was fun the characters interesting the excessive detailing ruined the flow for me. I can’t recommend this book.

Major issues:

This author is overly descriptive:

Clothes described in every little detail, why she keeps a change, where she keeps them, how it looks, cookie designs, buildings, cars, hair, shoes.... I thought they were going to lean into some clues but no she is just describing every little thing that comes into play in the story no matter how obscure.

She washed her hands and  she washed her hands because she touched the dogs she washed her hands oh and she was getting something ready so she washed her hands. I get it you are very safety minded but does it have to be written about so many times ? 

She is also very obtuse. She shows up uninvited and unwanted to funerals, places of business, anywhere that will cause a stir.

Then there is the way she uses her date ! ARGUH

So as much as I admired the character for her success I'm not liking her much right now

This one started out really dull, @ 5% I was thinking about dropping it. @ 10% I was hooked. She is a young hard working Vet Tech who just purchased her own business, a bakery/bakery double store business. She works part time still as a Tech along with long early hours trying to get her business going, wow a realistic side of life. She helps needy dogs and is self supporting and works hard- I like her