Review: Big Little Spies by Krista Davis

Big Little Spies (Paws and Claws Mystery, Book #7)

by Krista Davis

Release Date: April 13, 2021

2021 Berkley Books

Kindle Edition; 304 Pages

ISBN: 978-0451491701

ASIN: B0838KLBG1

Audiobook: B08W2C6K7N

Genre: Fiction / Mystery / Cozy

Source: Review copy from publsiher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary

The ladies of the Wagtail Animal Guardians, WAG for short, are in town for a pet adoption charity ball, and Holly is making sure to roll out the red carpet for her special guests. She and her furry best friend Trixie are busy keeping the WAG ladies happy and preparing for the ball when they learn that a retired judge has lost his prized pup.

The venerable citizen has hired a pet detective who has some personal ties to Holly's new guests. His presence ruffles some feathers, and when the PI is found DOA not long before the ball, Holly wonders if one of the WAG ladies had a motive for murder. To make matters worse, some pet-loving guests of the ball nearly suffer the same deadly fate. Holly and Trixie will have to sniff out the clues and leash a callous killer before they strike again....

 

My Thoughts

Big Little Spies is such a fun cozy mystery series, and I definitely enjoyed this latest entry.  In this one, people are coming for a major event, a charity ball, aptly named the "There's No Place Like Home" event. Gosh, how can you not love an event with a double entendre like that?  With a slew of quirky characters, this was a nice, light-hearted mystery to delve into.

 

I enjoy all the characters in this book and love how the author goes out her way to give them all their own quirks and personalities.  Holly and Trixie are the main characters, and yes, I know Trixie is a dog, but she is so adorable I can't help thinking of her as a main character.  There is actually a lot going on with certain characters and I am happy the author takes the time to develop secondary characters as well as main ones.  I also love the fact that Holly's relationship is not the central focus of the book, but just seems to fit in nicely with the story line - no drama, no angst, no other tropes that authors seem to always want to throw into books which can be so annoying.  It doesn't mean they don't have disagreements or they don't get annoyed with each other, but they deal with it maturely.  Enjoyable to read.

 

The plot was interesting and it took me a while to figure it out; the fact the author can still do this by the seventh book is impressive.  Keeping things fresh and intriguing must be so hard to do, but the author does it so well.  There are multiple things going on and the author uses those things as red herrings to throw you off the scent, so to speak, so you really have to pay attention to what is going on.  

 

I have always enjoyed this author's writing style, and really enjoy the witty dialogue.  Holly's inner monologue is a lot of fun too, and the sarcasm as she deals with certain people is priceless.  She is never mean though, but I did have a few laugh out loud moments when she was dealing with her aunt. 

 

And the animals.  It would definitely make me feel better if there were more misbehaved animals in this book as they are all so GOOD.  I have two cats and while they are great animals, they tend to do their own thing and would never obey me like the cats in this book.  I would get this weird look, then they would turn their back on me to say 'whatever'.  I definitely love the idea of this town and how the tourism is marketed to animal lovers though; it's a cool concept.  

 

Verdict

Big Little Spies definitely kept you guessing which is why I enjoyed it so much.  With a host of quirky and fun characters, I enjoyed returning to this town and learning more about them.  There are a lot of recipes included at the back of the book, for human and animal and sometimes both. I do think long-time fans of this series will really enjoy this book and while it's always nice to start at the beginning of a series, I do think you could actually read this one without having actually read the previous entries. I am looking forward to the next one when it is released.