Doggone Dead is the first book in a new cozy mystery series featuring best friends, and ladies of a certain age, Nora and Gwen.
You have to love a cozy mystery that gets to the point quickly. In chapter one, we meet Gwen trying to sleep late on her first day of retirement from her job teaching English to high schoolers. Next, we meet her best friend, Nora, who is well off after a series of marriages—and divorces. Nora previously started a business pet walking. She wants Gwen to become her partner in the newly renamed Two Sisters Pet Valet Services. After working her apartment building and the park across the street, Nora and Gwen have four new clients. When they return to Nora’s apartment, tired but happy, they find Nora’s hated neighbor, Linda, dead in the kitchen with a large knife protruding from her chest.
When Nora receives an anonymous letter accusing her of being a gold digger, she immediately suspects her ex-husbands and her step-children. And there are a lot of both.
Doggone Dead has retirement, friendship, cute fuzzy dogs, and one cantankerous parrot. It is a fun read. 3 stars.
Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.