Book 18, 2022

[chez_jae]

Murder at Pooch Park by Cindy Bell

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I finished reading Murder at Pooch Park by Cindy Bell last night. It's the first of the "Wagging Tail" cozy mystery series, and it's told in first-person point of view by Nikki Green, dog walker extraordinaire.

While walking dogs one morning, Nikki stumbles across the body of her friend, Chelsea, in the park where she likes to let the dogs burn off some energy. As if that wasn't bad enough, the detective in charge of the case, Quinn, doesn't seem to remember Nikki, even though he was instrumental in an event from her teen years. Nikki doesn't know who would have wanted to kill Chelsea, but when she begins asking questions, she finds out she didn't know Chelsea as well as she thought she did. As the official investigation stalls, Nikki refuses to give up on the case. She wants justice for Chelsea, and she's determined to find out who killed her.

This story was inane, for lack of a better word. The protagonist had no real reason to investigate. Sure, Nikki and Chelsea were friends, but they weren't besties, and I got the impression they hadn't known one another long. Second, Nikki took some extremely foolish risks in the course of her sleuthing, including ineptly following three surly, burly men to see where they were headed. It got worse. Less than 48 hours into the investigation, Quinn calls Nikki to notify her that the case was closed, due to lack of evidence. What the flippin' f*ck?! Does the author know NOTHING about murder investigations? No case is ever truly closed until it's solved, as evidenced by the occasional 'cold cases' we see in the news that have been solved after decades. Good grief, woman. Second, as someone who grew up in a small town, I can say for certainty that you knew everyone at your high school. Quinn may not have recognized Nikki when he first saw her, but once he learned her name, he would have known who she was. Vexing. Certain things were never explained. For instance, the police determined that Chelsea wasn't murdered where her body was located, but we never did learn where she was killed nor why the killer would have put her body where Nikki found her. Also, I could have sworn that both Calvin and Quinn asked Nikki to dinner 'later that night', but she doodled through the rest of her day/evening and went to bed that night, then got ready for her date the following night. I wasn't invested enough to go back and double-check, but since my eyebrows climbed when she just went home that first night, I'm 90% sure I'm correct. Editing, people!

Favorite lines:
♥ "Some people just have no class even if they have plenty of money."
♥ "You don't have to be an artist to see something magical in life. Everything around us is so beautiful when we take the time to truly see it."

The story was sloppy and would have benefited from both editing and polish. Giving it a generous two stars.