Paw Prints and Problems, by Carly Winter

Tact is not Gina's strong point. Nor is patience, well, unless it applies to a dog and an abandoned Golden Retriever has even about worn through her canine patience supply. Then there is that murder to solve. Sally's chef is murdered and she's asked Gina to help prove her innocence. How can Gina refuse a friend? 

Next thing we know, we're up to our reading eyeballs with surly bikers and drug lords, a father's confession, and .. .well, it's complicated. What really happened to Gina's mother? Why did she disappear? Who killed the chef and what's his name anyway? Will Zeus drive dog Gina's dog Daisy to distraction? Why is Trevor so free with information? Why is Gina hiding under a table? Who...oh, enough. So many questions.

I like Gina but, quite frankly, she does need to work on her approach to questioning. Gina has all the good intentions in the world but is given to being impulsive and not thinking through things before approaching people she genuinely suspects of being killers. True, she has her trusty talking dog Daisy at her side but Daisy isn't likely to scare off anyone. Daisy is smart and has a great nose for scents but, well, she also seems to operate like a toddler or, let's face it, in love with life dog. Daisy's canine chats with the abandoned, hyper, ill-behaved Zeus are a hoot. Finding out that there seems to be a scientific basis for his behavior and how it could be focused was definitely interesting. That sort of info is a plus for this book.

Bottom line, this was a fun, relatively quick read that I enjoyed. My own dog's name is Daisy, too, so another plus though I'm pretty sure I'd just as rather not know what she might really say to me at any given time. It was a plus in my mind that Gina made a point of going out of her way to both help and apologize to those she falsely accused.I did sorta have an inkling of who was guilty but it was so much fun to see Gina going off in one direction or the other with her suspicions, only to swerve into another lane dealing with wild-child, er, dog Zeus and finding him a forever home that it was never quite my focus. Yeah, I'd make a rotten detective. Grin.

Thanks #BookSirens and #WestwoodPublishing for giving me the chance to get to know Gina and, of course, Daisy the talking dog better. I'm looking forward to their next adventure, not to mention what is going on with Trevor.