A GOOD DOG'S GUIDE TO MURDER

The Wagtail, Virginia, Dog and Cat Gingerbread House Contest, with its $10,000 prize, is interrupted by news of murders old and new.

When Orly Biffle died, he left the town land for a new conference center as long as a majestic old oak tree was preserved. Now that the tree has started shedding limbs, it’s become a safety hazard, and Liesel Miller, Holly Miller’s grandmother and partner in the Sugar Maple Inn, has determined in her capacity asWagtail mayor to challenge the will and have the tree cut down. The situation gets worse when the tree trunk turns out to be filled with concrete that chews up the chainsaw blades attacking it, and worse still when police Sgt. Dave Quinlan and Holly’s sweetie, architect Holmes Richardson, realize that concrete isn’t the only thing it’s filled with. The most likely donors of the remains immured inside the tree 20 years ago are lady’s man Boomer Jenkins, who disappeared just before his planned wedding; Penn Connor, a Sugar Maple guest who departed without checking out around the same time; and Jay Alcorn, whose mother, Althea, is now selling the family home long after she tried to talk him into dropping his unsuitable girlfriend Josie Biffle, Orly’s daughter. As if this weren’t excitement enough, 9-year-old Kitty Johnson disappears along with her grandmother, Jean Maybury, whose gingerbread house entry has won her a weeklong stay at the Sugar Maple. The winsome, forgettable mystery is interrupted periodically by advice from Trixie, Holly’s Jack Russell terrier, to her fellow canines who dream of turning detective, and it’s capped by nine recipes, three of them suitable for dogs (including one for cats).

Since the murders involve poisoning, readers may want to think twice before trying those recipes.