Review: Under The Dog Star: A Rachel Goddard Mystery by Sandra Parshall

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (September 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590588800
• ISBN-13: 978-1590588802

Product Description

Something terrifying is happening to the dogs in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia. “Missing Dog” posters cover the waiting room walls at Dr. Rachel Goddard’s veterinary clinic. A pack of feral canines roams at night, attacking livestock in a desperate search for food. Now a prominent physician, Gordon Hall, has been found dead, his throat torn open.

 

Sheriff ’s Department investigator Tom Bridger believes the killing was premeditated murder, with a trained attack dog as the weapon. But Dr. Hall’s son insists that the pack killed his father, and he organizes a group of men to find and shoot the animals.

 

Rachel and her friend Holly Turner make enemies by trying to move the pack to sanctuary. Tom, in love with Rachel, struggles to divide his time among the feral dog problem, the search for the dogfighting operation, and the hunt for Gordon Hall’s killer. It’s complicated by Hall’s five rivalrous children and a multitude of suspects—human and canine.

 

 

About the Author

 

Sandra Parshall grew up in South Carolina and has worked as a reporter on newspapers in South Carolina, West Virginia, and Baltimore. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, a long-time Washington journalist, and three cats.

 

 

 

My Review

 

This is my first Rachel Goddard mystery by Sandra Parshall and I am hooked! I am going to have to backtrack and read the rest of the series. What a captivating book! 

Rachel Goddard is a veterinarian in Mason County, Virginia.  Their is a darkness in parts of the county.  Rumours of dog fighting abound.  When the owner/operator of the local hospital is found murdered it looks as if he has been killed by a dog.  And a pack of feral canines are terrorizing livestock in the county.  Who would have thought that in this terrible economy people would be abandoning their pets in the wilderness.  I had no idea such a thing happens...very enlightening.

Lots of twists and turns and interesting characters!  Highly recommend this mystery thriller!