On This Page
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML:Someone is killing off the great dog trainers of the world—and it's up to PI Rachel Alexander and her pit bull, Dash, to collar the murderer Rachel has just been hired as undercover security at a dog-training symposium at a posh Manhattan hotel. How can the Greenwich Village PI and her pit bull, Dashiell, turn down the hefty fee, plus free room and biscuits at the Ritz? All Rachel has to do is keep the peace among the competitive diva dog trainers who have come with show more their prize pooches from all corners of the globe. She and Dash have barely infiltrated the festivities when they find out that one of the trainers, the self-proclaimed guru of a controversial obedience technique, has been electrocuted in his bathtub. The cops are calling it an accident. Until another trainer dies . . . and then another. With suspects including a dog psychic and a behaviorist to the stars, Rachel discovers that it's the humans who need to be housebroken as she and Dash bring a serial killer to heel. A Hell of a Dogis the 3rd book in the Rachel Alexander and Dash Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
My wife and I listened to ‘The Dog Who Knew Too Much‘ on our long post-Christmas drive north to family. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to listen to the next book, ‘A Hell of a Dog‘ (1998), on the way back home. We didn’t manage to finish it, so we listened to it together on our first evening at home.
This was also fun but very different from the previous book. The first book was sad and introspective. This one was quite raucous by comparison. In ’The Dog Who Knew Too Much’, dogs were peripheral to the story. In ‘A Hell of a Dog’, dogs and the people who train them were at its heart.
'A Hell of a Dog' is a murder mystery, set in a week-long dog training symposium being run at a posh Manhattan hotel opposite show more Central Park. Rachel, an ex-dog trainer turned unlicensed PI, is working undercover, posing as a guest speaker on dog training, to identify and neutralise any unpleasantness between the other speakers. Some of the speakers hate each other and have been known to sabotage one another. Her task becomes more challenging when the speakers start to die. At first, the deaths seem accidental, but Rachel believes that the speakersmay be being murdered and sets out to find the murderer.
Rachel is faced with a pool of a dozen suspects/potential victims, some of whom she knows well. The dog people are larger-than-life individuals who are strong on self-promotion, passionate about their own dog training method, and dismissive of everyone else’s. They argue endlessly, prank one another habitually, drink to excess, and see their stay in a conference hotel as unleashing them from their marriage vows. Vanity, infidelity, and dominance games power the plot.
Then the presenters start to die. The manner of each of their deaths, while seeming accidental, echoes/ridicules their preferred dog training method. This leads to some very creative kills.
Carol Lea Benjamin was a professional dog trainer who published half a dozen books designed to help novices train their dogs. Her knowledge of dogs and the dog world shone through, grounding this book firmly in reality. The descriptions of the trainers, their methods, and their idiosyncrasies were as entertaining as the mystery.
I recommend the audiobook version of 'Hell of a Dog'. Dina Pearlman's narration brought the whole thing to life. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LmUCKvHjytw show less
This was also fun but very different from the previous book. The first book was sad and introspective. This one was quite raucous by comparison. In ’The Dog Who Knew Too Much’, dogs were peripheral to the story. In ‘A Hell of a Dog’, dogs and the people who train them were at its heart.
'A Hell of a Dog' is a murder mystery, set in a week-long dog training symposium being run at a posh Manhattan hotel opposite show more Central Park. Rachel, an ex-dog trainer turned unlicensed PI, is working undercover, posing as a guest speaker on dog training, to identify and neutralise any unpleasantness between the other speakers. Some of the speakers hate each other and have been known to sabotage one another. Her task becomes more challenging when the speakers start to die. At first, the deaths seem accidental, but Rachel believes that the speakersmay be being murdered and sets out to find the murderer.
Rachel is faced with a pool of a dozen suspects/potential victims, some of whom she knows well. The dog people are larger-than-life individuals who are strong on self-promotion, passionate about their own dog training method, and dismissive of everyone else’s. They argue endlessly, prank one another habitually, drink to excess, and see their stay in a conference hotel as unleashing them from their marriage vows. Vanity, infidelity, and dominance games power the plot.
Then the presenters start to die. The manner of each of their deaths, while seeming accidental, echoes/ridicules their preferred dog training method. This leads to some very creative kills.
Carol Lea Benjamin was a professional dog trainer who published half a dozen books designed to help novices train their dogs. Her knowledge of dogs and the dog world shone through, grounding this book firmly in reality. The descriptions of the trainers, their methods, and their idiosyncrasies were as entertaining as the mystery.
I recommend the audiobook version of 'Hell of a Dog'. Dina Pearlman's narration brought the whole thing to life. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LmUCKvHjytw show less
I love mysteries with dogs assisting the detective and this one about a convention of dog trainers is fun. I always prefer the dog to take a more active role, but this one helps in his own way (by providing the muscle). I also prefer my criminals a bit less likable.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
36+ Works 1,746 Members
Carol Lea Benjamin is a dog trainer and author who integrates her careers into both fiction and nonfiction writing. Benjamin's nonfiction works include, Dog Training in 10 Minutes and The Chosen Puppy: How to Select and Raise a Great Puppy from an Animal Shelter. Her fiction works include The Dog Who Knew Too Much and This Dog for Hire, which won show more the 1997 Dog Writer Association of America Award for Fiction. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Hell of a Dog
- Original publication date
- 1999-09
- People/Characters
- Rachel Alexander; Dashiell (Pit Bull Terrier)
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Epigraph
- To know and to act are one and the same. - SAmurai maxim
- Dedication
- For Stephen, my gueleebte
The author wishes to thank:
Polly DeMille and Richard Siegel
Detectives Daniell O'Connell, Frank Fitzgerald, and James Abreu of the Sixth Precinct, Greenwich Village
Larr... (show all)y Berg, Dennis Owens, Beth Adelman, Sidney Shulmanh, Steve Martin Cohen, Warren Davis, Gina Spadafori, and Stuard Turner,DVM
Michael Seidman and the rest of the team at Walker, especially George Gibson, Linda Johns, Krystyna Skalski, and Chris Carey, with special thanks to everyone who played ball with Flash one afternoon last fall
Gail Hochman
And Dexter and Flash, constant companions. - First words
- Less is more.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She whispered something in her dog's ear; then back straight, head held high, she handed her tome and began to pack her things.
- Blurbers
- Caras, Roger
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 102
- Popularity
- 304,731
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
