Summer means two things to Melanie Travis: a break from her teaching duties at Connecticut's elite Howard Academy, and a chance to plan the perfect wedding to her fiancé, Sam. What she doesn't need is an unwelcome arrival of a dinner invitation from Sam's ex-wife Sheila. To make matters worse, Sheila has announced that her temporary stay in town is now permanent -- she's accepted a job as co-publisher of Woof!, a new gossip rag for the dog show world....

When the wealthy philanthropist host of an annual fundraiser to benefit a local animal shelter is found dead, Melanie Travis must unearth the true cause of his death.

Melanie Travis needs a little peace from her busy life this Christmas. But the usual holiday hubbub is a joy compared to the killer surprise she finds tucked underneath the tree ... With a demanding teaching job at Connecticut's elite Howard Academy and five poodles scampering around the house, Melanie barely has energy for the upcoming Christmas rush. But she unwraps an unexpected challenge when her brother and ex-husband, elated by the recent success...

"Standard Poodle owner Melanie Travis is an excellent judge of dogs-and people. But what happens when an unnamed killer emerges at one of the fiercest all-breed competitions ever? As Greenwich, Connecticut, slows down during a bitterly cold February, Melanie and her spunky Aunt Peg head to the city that never sleeps for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Aunt Peg can't wait to demonstrate her judging chops on national TV,...

Sixty-something Maxie McNabb and her miniature dachshund, Stretch, are just back home from their latest adventure, and are preparing to settle in for the approaching winter. They go for a walk along the beach before the snows flies, and meet a pleasant drifter who has come to see the town Alaskans call "the end of the road." John Walker has no friends in the area and no plans, so Maxie invites him to dinner with a group of her friends. The next day,...

Heading for New Mexico in her mini-Winnebago, Maxie McNabb and her dog, Stretch, find their cross-country odyssey interrupted by the attempted suicide of a local woman despondent over the infidelity of her middle-aged husband.

In Georgia, bloodhound trainer Jo Beth Sidden probes the kidnaping 30 years earlier of two babies, one of whom was murdered. The man convicted for the crime has been released on medical parole and swears he did not do it.

Jo Beth Sidden is a fiercely independent woman who raises and trains bloodhounds for search-and-rescue missions and to track down escaped prisoners in South Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp. Jo Beth's got her hands full when the local police chief hires her to sniff out a local marijuana grower and a friend asks her to locate a kidnapped man--even though the FBI is on the case. And when her sociopath of an ex-husband Bubba gets out of prison and begins...

"Melanie Travis has her hands full with her two young sons, a part-time job, and a half dozen Poodles to her name. But even with the busy holiday season approaching, she still has time to sniff out a Christmastime killer"--