Like a Dog with a Bone

by Lee Charles Kelley

Book Overview

Returning to Maine after a blissful honeymoon in Mexico, kennel owner Jack Field and his smart and sexy bride, chief medical examiner Dr. Jamie Cutter, are ready to fulfill a promise made to a new... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006073230X
• ISBN13: 9780060732301
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Like a Dog with a Bone

Like a Dog With a Bone I am an animal lover who reads a lot. I "discoverd" Lee Charles Kelly in a used book store. When I started reading his first book, I could not put it down and have purchased all his dog mysteries. His character is witty, intelligent and the plots are intricate and unpredictable. Kelly brings his dogs to life with humor and soul. I have applied his training techniques to my own spoiled rascals with success. Kelly also itnroduced me to Miles Van Zandt - what a boon! I am looking forward to his next book.

4 stars

Just back from his honeymoon in Mexico, kennel owner Jack Field finds himself involved in another murder mystery as he simply tries to do a good deed and check in on a retired general and his dog who has a digging problem at the request of the general's daughter. But the dog has dug up a bone that belongs to a body, the body of the general's wife who supposedly ran off to Mexico twenty years ago. Suddenly government types are tailing Jack and bombs are exploding and one of his employees goes AWOL as Jack finds himself trying to uncover a U.S. Government conspiracy and the murderer before he becomes the next victim. **** This was an interesting whodunit involving government conspiracy theories that is well written with humor and candor. It is a good read for dog lovers with interesting dog training theories though there are quite a few characters in the story to keep up with which hinders the reading a bit. **** Barbara Stabler

digging for the truth

This book is a nice blend of suspense, mystery, and dog lore. I especially like the way Kelley integrates his theories of dog traing into the story itself, So many of the so-called "dog mysteries" are stories that feature a dog and otherwise have nothing to do with dogs. There is also a good deal of narrative detail that,although sometimes slowing the narrative drive,is often interesting. Secondary characters are developed well and appear as real people rather than props for plot development. All in all the book is an enjoyable reading experience that readers of Conant,Berenson,Benjamin,et al will enjoy.

How I Wrote this Novel

This book was the hardest to write because of some things going on in my personal and professional life at the time: first I lost my editor at Avon, Erin Richnow (she got a better job, which she deserved), and I had to develop a relationship with a new editor. Then my mother died, and I had a "heart attack" scare shortly afterward (which was fortunately proven to be just a scare by a stress test). I had cataract surgery on both eyes, then my dog was diagnosed with congestive heart failure (which unfortunately wasn't just a scare--he's 15). Yet despite all that agita (which was spread out over six months), in some ways this is still the best book in the series. There are some different elements to this story, a deepness, I think, and perhaps an emotional resonance that the others don't have. The comic elements are still there--that Jack and Jamie kind of happy madness, which is, I don't know, their ability to laugh at danger, their ready willingness to plunge themselves into madcap adventures? And of course Jack's all-or-nothing pursuit of the truth is here in spades, as well. Underlying all of this is a simple truth, that actions have consequences. That violence only begets more violence. The thing that has always pleased and amazed me about Jack Field is the thread of human decency that runs through everything he does. (That's right; I'm often surprised by the behavior of a character I supposedly created!) Jack knows, for instance that you don't cure aggression in dogs by acting aggressively toward them, instead you find out what's making them uneasy and you try to help them fix it. He knows too, that the all-too-human impulse for revenge will only lead to tragedy. Does he resist that impulse himself here? Or does he learn his lesson the hard way? (Sorry, that's part of the mystery...) Which reminds me: this book is hardly a dry character study or a dense treatise on morals. Far from it. Those things only lurk beneath the surface of what I think is a pretty damn good murder mystery, with some laugh-out-loud comedy, a lot of relentless, page-turning suspense, some unexpected twists and turns, and a knock-your-socks-off surprise ending as well. I hope you like it.