High in Trial

Raine Stockton Dog Mysteries, Volume 7

By: Donna Ball

Narrated by: Donna Postel

A weekend competition turns deadly in this seventh Raine Stockton Dog Mystery.

Dog trainer Raine Stockton and her happy-go-lucky golden retriever, Cisco, have been looking forward to the opening weekend of AKC competitive agility all winter. They travel to the low country of South Carolina to compete against some of the top dogs in the Southeast for blue ribbons, squeaky toys, and perhaps even that elusive title of High in Trial. But even in this carefree atmosphere of high-spirited dogs and dedicated owners, ambition runs high, and when one of the competitors is found brutally murdered it begins to look as though corruption might have penetrated even this last bastion of decency and sportsmanship, the AKC.

While Raine and Cisco stalk a killer, back home a 20-year-old mystery is unfolding--one that will have devastating consequences for Raine and those she loves. And every hour that passes brings a deadly threat closer.

©2013 Donna Ball (P)2015 Donna Ball

Critic reviews

"A simply fabulous mystery starring a likeable, dedicated heroine...." ( Midwest Book Review)

"A delightful protagonist.... [A] well-crafted mystery." ( Romantic Times)

Good, but brought up politics.

I listened to the whole series including reading the one that's not on audio. I love dog series, especially search and rescue and this one is pretty good, but there are a lot of things that bothered me in it. The main character is a dog trainer, but she is the worst dog trainer ever. It's like all of her dogs are out of control most of the time and she has no clue as to what they need. I'm surprised, but I somehow could get around that and enjoy this series and Raine is a likable person. One of my favorite characters is Sonny the dog psychic because she would tell Raine exactly what the dog needed which Raine should have known, but still it takes her a while to figure it out.

Very disappointing that I was well into the books when they start to get political. The bad guy extremists are called Patriots so I'm assuming the author is a liberal and trying to make conservatives look bad. :( I was hoping that would be contained to just that one story, but was brought up again in later books as an extra punch. It makes me sad that an otherwise pretty good story has to bring up politics. Why even go there and alienate half your audience? I enjoyed the narrator and the story, it's just apparent the author doesn't know much about dog training and then again, the politics.

Donna Ball has continued to improve on her stories

This was the best of her books I have listen to. It was entertaining and plot was not as quick to figure out as same of her other ons and of course her narrator is excellent

Excellent Story

This was a heart dropping yet beautiful story of a dog lover and those who loved her. The story was totally believable and heartfelt. Two forever friends so entangled in emotion, the find life so hard to entangle to find there forever loves

recommended

kept coming back to finish her story. Good read, love the dog character and role
.

To the dogs

I love this series. Good believable characters and interesting plots. I am carefully working my way through them all!