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Raine Stockton lives by the Smokey Mountains and is a dog trainer who works for the forest service. When any stray dog turns up or when a tourist goes missing Raine is called in with her trained dogs to handle it. One day she gets an unusual call from the police. A dead body has been seen through the window of a bedroom in an isolated cabin. In the room outside the bedroom door a yellow Labrador dog has been locked in and the dog is upset and howling. It's up to Raine to get the dog out so the police can get into the house to investigate. If she can't safely remove the animal, the police will have to shoot it. Raine manages to get the dog into a crate in her car, but she notices that the dog seems to be very well trained. When the police enter the cabin, they find a woman shot and dead with a gun on the floor on her right side. It looks like it's a suicide, but they can't find anything else to let them know her identity. As one cop says, the dog is the only witness to the crime. After she has the local veterinarian look over the dog (Raine names him Hero) Raine takes Hero into her home with her other dogs and where she has a kennel. She discovers a number tattooed on Hero and, after some phone calls finds out the name and the owners of the animal, helping the police immeasurably. The dead woman's name was Michelle White and she had been traveling with her husband. From the looks of the cabin it seemed she had shot herself with her right hand but Raine finds out she was paralyzed in her right side, and that is where the well-trained dog came in. Hero was a dog very specially trained to help handicapped people. Raine just can't understand how anyone could have decided to let their beloved dog starve to death even if they wanted to die themselves. There was no food or water in the house at all. Raine can't help but continue to dig for more information, much to the chagrin of her uncle the sheriff or of her on-again off-again almost ex-husband, a deputy with the sheriff's department. GUN SHY is a terrific cozy murder mystery. From the first page the readers can see that the writer, Donna Ball, knows what she's doing. The characterization of Raine is clear and captivating. She's a dog trainer and dog lover by nature and all the rest of her likes and dislikes flow from that one bit of information. Right away we can almost visualize the magnificent location where she lives and we can enjoy the qualities of her friends, family and of her almost ex-husband. As for the mystery, everything about the dead woman and the dog also is crystal clear to the readers and you can tell that this book will be a great read – and it is. Not only is the mystery well done, but there's a lot of well thought out information about dogs and training and dog owners. I'm not much of an animal fanatic, but this book fascinated me and piqued my interest in trained dogs. There's also some information about canine musical freestyle dancing with dogs that I never would have learned about if not for this book. Amazing! A fast and interesting read, well put together and well crafted, GUN SHY – a phrase that fits both the canines and Raine for different reasons – is a first-rate book. It's the third in the series and I am definitely going to read the other two. I can't wait!
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, September 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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