Furbidden Fatality by Deborah Blake – a Review

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Description:
Kari Stuart’s life is going nowhere–until she unexpectedly wins the lottery. The twenty-nine-year-old instant multimillionaire is still mulling plans for her winnings when trying to rescue a bossy black kitten leads her to a semiabandoned animal shelter. They need the cash–Kari needs a purpose.

But the dilapidated rescue is literally going to the dogs with a pending lawsuit, hard to adopt animals, and too much suspicious attention from the town’s dog warden. When the warden turns up dead outside the shelter’s dog kennels, Kari finds herself up a creek without a pooper-scooper.

With the help of some dedicated volunteers, a cute vet, and a kitten who mysteriously shows up just when she needs it, Kari must prove her innocence all while trying to save a dog on death row. Now she just needs to hope that her string of unexpected luck isn’t about to run out.

Review:

Furbidden Fatality by Deborah Blake is the first book in her new Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery series.  I have read a few series by Blake, and this new series is a total genre change for her.  I will say that I loved the book, it’s heroine Kari and especially a little black kitten named, Queenie, who I absolutely adored.

We meet our heroine, Kari Stuart, who finally manages to capture an adorable cute black kitten, and takes her to a shelter to find her a home.  The shelter is overbooked and unable to take any more pets, she is told to try the failing sanctuary.  Kari, barley made ends meet, but she just won a 5-million-dollar lottery, and decides to do something constructive, and purchase the dilapidated animal shelter that is for sale.  She hires men to renovate the shelter and together with Daisy (former owner), Sara, Bryn, and her best friend, Suz, the shelter slowly opens up to bring in more dogs and cats.  Two issues though are problematic, a pending lawsuit against Buster (under Daisy’s tenure), a dog who escaped and supposedly bit someone, with the evil dog warden pushing for his death; and on the same day Kari moves into her house next door, she wakes up during the night, as the dogs are all barking. Kari discovers a dead body, and it is the dog warden.       

Since she discovered the body, Kari is immediately a suspect, as is Daisy; but since almost every dog owner in town hated the dog warden, any one could have murdered him.  There were quite a few dog owners whose dog was put to sleep on the warden’s recommendations, which leads Kari, with some help from her volunteers, to start their own investigation to the murder. Over the next few nights, the shelter is vandalized by someone who wants to destroy the shelter.  Are they the ones who committed the murder?  Why are they so determined to cause chaos? Kari will be on the case to find out.

What follows is a cute cozy mystery, with wonderful secondary characters, fun adorable dogs and cats, a few villains (that keep you guessing), and a possible future romance between two new people; the veterinarian and the new dog warden.  Most of all, as noted earlier I loved loved Queenie the little kitten, who seems to have a little magic, as she manages to help give her clues.  Did I save I love Queenie?

Forbidden Fatality was a light hearted and fun small-town mystery that kept you guessing til the very end. We also get a glimpse of shelter life taking care and meeting the abandoned animals, as well as finding homes.  Deborah Blake did a wonderful job writing this story, and keeping our interest throughout. I look forward to the next book in this series. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher