E. J. Cochrane

Matilda Smithwick (Maddie to her friends) is the proud owner of Little Guys Pet Care, a small but steadily growing dog walking company on Chicago's North Side. Maddie loves her job and her life. As long as she has her rescued mutt Bart to keep her company, Maddie is perfectly happy.

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Lucia Correa

3 stars. The book is well written and an easy breezy read. 

First off - what is the deal with Lesbians and Great Danes? In the past few months, I've read a number of books with Danes. RJ Nolan has always had Danes in her stories, MJ Duncan's Atramentum, Meghan O'Brien's Battle Scars and now this book features a Great Dane.

Maddie owns a thriving dog walking business with a number of employees. When we meet her, she is walking a new client's Champion Great Dane, Goliath. When she returns to Goliath's house, she finds his owner dead, bludgeoned to death. And so begins the mystery as Maddie decides to investigate herself because she feels that the police suspect that she is the killer. Maddie takes Goliath home because otherwise he would've been sent to a shelter.

Sleeping Dogs Lie has the usual characters - the quirky (not the right word, but I'll go with it for now) BFF, Dottie, the feisty Grandmother, and the new love interest, Goliath's Vet Nadia. A number of other characters also make appearances or mentioned - her parents, sisters, employees, police and various suspects. It's a few of the characterizations that I had problems with. Dottie plays the BFF, a 3x married het, wealthy socialite. I'm not sure if she is supposed to be the comic relief. I think many of Cochrane's characters strive to be funny or outlandish or in case of the Grandmother, fiesty. They are, but just fall a bit short. However, because I just recently read Colette Moody's Parties in Congress, I maybe unfair comparing a debut author's characters to Moody's. After all what BFF could compare to Moody's Fran? As for the romance - I just wasn't feeling it. I was rooting for the policewoman that flirts with Maddie for a few paragraphs.

As for Maddie. She was fine. But it really bugged me is that for someone with a dog business she is clueless about dog shows, breeders and her competition. Dottie has a show dog and is heavily involved with dog shows and if I remember correctly, organizing them. However, Maddie seems to know very little about dog shows, breeding etc. I had a friend who was a breeder and a dog handler (she trained and showed dogs for owners). I got to know a lot just by being around Joyce, even though I didn't have a dog. Maddie is planning to expand her business to include a doggie spa and daycare and was looking for a new facility. Yet, she had no clue that Dottie took her dog every week to a Doggie Spa and had never heard of the Spa. Really?

So this book just falls a little bit short for me. But I will read this author again, the potential is there and she does write well.

Sleeping Dogs Lie

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