After surviving an assault from her former best friend and the murder of a boyfriend and patron, Lia spends her time recovering through her art. Although the dog park she frequents was near the scene of the crime, she remains there socializing with a motley crew of owners and their charges. As she spends more time with her new beau–a police officer–she begins to realize that there may have been more forces at work in the violence she encountered.
The strength of DROOL BABY lies in the rag tag group of dog park regulars that the author creates. The in-depth character development happens quite naturally both as a circumstance of lots of park socializing scenes as well as the main character’s attempts to get to the root of her former friend’s murderous behavior. While the sheer amount of characters is a bit overwhelming at the beginning, their ties to their dogs as well as the unique facets of their personalities make each person, or suspect, equally compelling.
While the story is engrossing and fast-paced there are some weaknesses in dialogue and character agency. The back-and-forth banter between Lia and her beau, Peter, is clichéd at several points. Peter becomes a trope of an overprotective boyfriend/caretaker who is actually right in the end, which makes Lia seem foolish for not taking the situation seriously enough.
A quirky tale of pets and their owners, art, and intrigue DROOL BABY is a satisfying and engaging mystery set against a unique backdrop.
~IndieReader.