Review by Booklist Review
The solid second entry in Logan's (The Scent of Murder, 2019) series about cadaver dog trainer Jazz Ramsey follows her investigation of a new murder. As in the first book, Jazz is connected to the case via St. Catherine's, the Catholic school at which she is an office administrator. While Jazz loves her day job, she's also passionate about her side gig, and when she brings her new puppy to work for training, they find a skeleton hidden on the fourth floor of the school. The bones belong to Bernadette Quinn, a teacher who'd struggled to fit in, then disappeared three years ago. Jazz must find out what happened before the killer strikes again. Logan's mystery-building chops are apparent. Readers will be engaged by the many clues and red herrings Jazz follows. Logan also plants hints about the death of Jazz's father, which may come into play in a future book. Recommended for cozy readers who like some mysteries a bit darker as well as suspense fans who want something more traditional.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Logan's appealing sequel to 2019's The Scent of Murder finds Jazz Ramsey, whose day job is administrative assistant at St. Catherine's Preparatory Academy for Girls in Cleveland, training her Airedale puppy, Wally, to become a cadaver dog and sniff out dead bodies for the police. Jazz gets pressed into giving the students a cadaver dog demonstration on career day at St. Catherine's, but what should have been a fascinating hour turns grim when Wally sniffs out a body in the school's attic. The dead woman was former religion teacher Bernadette Quinn, who left the school three years earlier under a cloud. Bernadette was fanatic about her religion, but a good teacher and something of a special project for principal Sister Eileen Flannery. Jazz is dismayed when the police begin to suspect that the person with the strongest motive for murder was Sister Eileen, so Jazz takes it upon herself to discover who really had it out for Bernadette. Smooth prose more than compensates for a couple of unlikely events. Red herrings, a developing romance, and just the right amount of information about cadaver dogs help make this a winner. Agent: Gail Fortune, Talbot Fortune. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a cadaver dog finds a body hidden at a parochial school, the staff is shocked to learn that the departed is a former colleague. Assembly Day at St. Catherine's Preparatory Academy for Girls is all about showcasing job opportunities for students, and administrative assistant Jazz Ramsey has a unique career path she wants to share. She's in the process of training Wally, her Airedale puppy, to become a human remains detection dog, an expert who can assist in police searches to find bodies whose presence people might never discover. Because Wally's only just learning, Jazz borrows Gus, a retired HRD dog, for her demo for the girls, hoping Gus will find the bone and tooth she's hidden in the room. When Gus alerts her at an unexpected spot, Jazz hustles the girls out and phones the police, knowing there must be a body concealed nearby. And so there is. It appears from the jeweled cross it sports that Bernadette Quinn, a teacher who resigned from the school some three years earlier, has never really left. Jazz and her boss, Sister Eileen Flannery, are stunned by the discovery. Though Bernadette was controversial because of her strict rules, her religious fervor, and her insistence that she spoke directly to angels, there was never any indication of foul play in her departure. Because Bernadette's close relationship to the school makes the cops suspect that Eileen might have had something to do with her death, Jazz starts asking questions to help clear Eileen's name. At first she thinks it's a good excuse to connect with police officer Nick Kolesov, her ex-boyfriend, and learn more about her former colleague; eventually, she's disconcerted to learn that Bernadette might have been hiding some major secrets. Only a puppy would be surprised by the big reveal, but the amiable lead makes the reading worthwhile. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
