Lawyers, Dogs, and Money

A Veronica Kildare K-9 Mystery, Book 2

By: Tracy Carter

Narrated by: Alyssa Baumann

Veronica possesses a natural affinity for training dogs and a passion for locating missing people. As "Lawyers, Dogs, and Money" unfolds, Veronica trains peanut allergy alert and prison contraband sniffing dogs and joins her search and rescue colleague, a Deputy Sheriff for Boulder County, in trying to ascertain the source of threats against Kadri Ilves, a co-worker of Sgt. Donovan's daughter at a high-end import/export business.

The woman being targeted is a native of Estonia and has a long history of advocating for social justice causes. As efforts to harm Kadri escalate in an alarming fashion, Veronica's team and Sgt. Donovan desperately attempt to pinpoint the person behind the threats. Veronica's father assists the investigation by researching Kadri's background, including her work to end racial disparity in prison sentencing, and legal claims she has filed relative to disputed lands in Estonia.

Has Kadri put herself in the crosshairs of the California branch of the Russian Mafia? Can Veronica and her canine partner, Leda, save Kadri before events turn deadly?

©2024 Tracy Carter (P)2024 Tracy Carter

4 1/2 stars. Enjoyed this mystery,

4 1/2 stars for me. I loved the detail that went into this story regarding Estonia, illegal trade and routes, and training of dogs. Veronica had a very strong support system, helping with the hunt, information gathering, and of course, rescue. There were plenty of suspects to cull through, and I had an inkling early on, though the reveal was unexpected. I fell in love with her dogs and look forward to more in this series.
The narration by Alyssa Baumann was wonderful. The emotions and different personalities kept the story alive. Her voice enhanced the tale.

This is my unsolicited review.

A good dog tale

As a positive dog trainer I don’t agree with use of training collars and the quick snapping of same as a correction of unwanted dog behavior. That and the sometimes overdone rework of the plot by the characters are the only two things I would recommend changing.

Excellent story

Once again, the author engaged us from the very fist scene. Her knowledge of dog training and use in law enforcement is astounding. Th story was filled with day to day activities while never losing track of the mystery, which was cleverly woven in. It kept me guessing until the end.

The narrator was perfect and her tempo and cadence was excellent.

A wonderful story with a wonderful ending.

Dad's and dogs

The storyline confused me with the reference to estonia but the Thank you at the end lightened my heart to the main character in the background. The father. Beautiful

Decent story sidelined by too much minutiae and stilted conversation

The story itself was good and i enjoyed the dogs and their interactions with their humans and catching bad guys. The narrator was decent as well: not the best but also not the worst by a long shot. However, there were some things that irritated me and made the listening experience less enjoyable.

First and foremost, there was a lot of detailed description on how a dog gets trained for various specific tasks. I don’t need to know the details of how to train a dog to find peanuts. Just give me the broad strokes. I could’ve done without probably 90-100 minutes of unnecessary detailed explanation in this story. Sometimes, It was as if the book was about training dogs and the mystery/suspense was merely an inconsequential sideline.

Secondly, the conversation frequently sounded stilted, as if everyone in the story was using English as a second language. While there were a couple of non-native speakers, most of the characters were American. Nobody from here frequently uses ‘I am’, she is’ or ‘are not’. In normal
conversation it’s most likely I’m, she’s, or aren’t. It just sounds wrong, especially when the speakers are teenaged girls.

Also, it seemed like bizarre wording was thrown in indiscriminately several times. A good example is when the protagonist watched the dog “engulf her food”. Engulf? Really?

Maybe Im just too picky, I dunno. The story was good enough for me to want to know how things ended. It just took way too long to get there in my opinion. Not sure I’ll purchase any more from this author.