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Jeff Hubbard has disappeared. The staff at Hubbard's detective agency does not know where he is nor do they know if he has returned to the United States from his last case. Girlfriend Kendra Ballantyne is concerned but does not worry excessively until the police find his car in a canal. While police and Jeff's employees investigate Jeff's whereabouts, Kendra tries to work on her new criminal cases at Yurick & Associates as well as juggle her pet sitting responsibilities. Unfortunately she is not someone who is able to just sit and wait. After having successfully solved several other crimes, Kendra hopes she will be able to assist in the search for Jeff. When she receives a phone call from Jeff's mother, Irene, Kendra has somewhere to begin her own inquiry. Irene is quite anxious over Jeff's disappearance and urges Kendra to contact Aunt Lois, a family friend. It seems that Aunt Lois asked Jeff to look into a company called The Clone Arranger. This company claims to be able to clone animals, and Lois had taken her beloved Flisa to be cloned. Not only were they unable to clone her dog, Lois believes that their procedures brought about her death. Lois had asked Jeff to return to the United States secretly and determine if The Clone Arranger is responsible for Flisa's death. Now with Jeff missing, Lois is sure that the top officers at The Clone Arranger have murdered Jeff to cover up their other crimes. With this information in hand, Kendra visits The Clone Arranger with a pet to be cloned. Before Kendra is able to accomplish more than a trip to the facilities, Earl Knox is discovered murdered. As Aunt Lois had previously threatened the man for his actions in Flisa's death, she is the number one suspect. Kendra must solve this murder before the elderly Lois is taken into custody for a murder she did not commit. DOUBLE DOG DARE is not the strongest book in the series. It relies a lot on coincidence and has many transparent plot devices. For example, the new pooper-scooper company sounds fishy from its first mention so I did not find its "surprise" a revelation. Also, the excuses and lies the characters used during Kendra's investigation are rather blatant, which makes Kendra's willingness to accept them unconvincing. DOUBLE DOG DARE uses the same standards and plot devices as the previous five books in the series. Kendra is able to use her contacts in both the animal fanciers' and the legal world to investigate crimes and resolve animal-related legal issues. She remains self-confident and self-assured regardless of what comes her way. While some of her actions regarding pet sitting (such as sending an untried assistant to care for animals that are her responsibility or rushing her pet-sitting visits) are annoying to read about as a pet owner, her relationship with her own dog and with Jeff's helps to compensate for some of her less attractive character traits. While DOUBLE DOG DARE is not going to be on my list for "best mysteries of 2008," it will appeal to longtime fans of the series.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, July 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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