Dashing Through the Show

Wiggle Butt Manor Mystery, #2

by

Cindy Goyette

Mystery, murder, mutts, and romance during the holiday season.

Dashing Through the Show is the second book in veteran author Cindy Goyette’s fun, Pacific Northwest-set Wiggle Butt Manor Mystery series, and it features mystery, murder, and a load of loyal puppers. Charlie Calderbank travels across the country to her Aunt Jo-Jo’s hometown of Orca Cove on an island off the coast of Washington state, with a truckload of home goods and her faithful cocker spaniel, Noah. Her return coincides with the grand opening of Jo-Jo’s dream addition to her Wiggle Butt Manor dog hotel, the first dog agility course on the tiny island. Her aunt’s business partner, Martha, is even able to talk a famous former son of Orca Cove who has made a name for himself in the world of dog training and agility championships into opening the course with his champion dog, Bentley. However, the obnoxious and rude man seems to have offended everyone he came in contact with in the community, including a murderer. 

Charlie is such a sweet person and loving dog-mom to her own Noah and the wild and wily Maya, the adopted dog of the recently deceased Lucy Masanovea, whose murder case Charlie pursued in the previous book in the series. Charlie is struggling with her health and her recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and needs to share this and her feelings with those she loves. She worries that her sentence of such a lifelong debilitating illness will end her burgeoning relationship with local Orca Cove police officer Nick Sabato, one of the main reasons she decided to uproot her life in New Jersey and relocate so far away. 

In the meantime, Nick is overwhelmed by his surprise new role as father to sulky teenage daughter, Kyleigh. As the face of law enforcement in the community, he must sideline his plans to pursue a relationship with Charlie when she becomes a person of interest in a murder case. Still, there is some intense chemistry between the two, leftover from their introduction to each other in book one. 

The plot revs up quickly and maintains a brisk pace until the final pages, as Charlie becomes the focus of the murder investigation and must try to clear her own name by finding the real killer. I had no idea how invested I was in the people of Orca Cove until I began reading this book and became so annoyed by any interruptions! The investigation to discover the truth is well-done, and there were some good suspects to cross off the list as the dead man had made many enemies. 

I recommend DASHING THROUGH THE SHOW to readers of cozy mysteries, especially those who enjoy stories with dogs or Pacific Northwest settings. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.