Three Woofs for the Dead, White and Blue - Laura Quinn (Laura Quinn - June 2019)

Series: Pawtisserie Mysteries (Book 1)
 
It's all paws on deck as Claire Noble and her pawtner Baron open the Posh Pup Pawtisserie in the midst of North Haven's Fourth of July festivities. Tails are wagging in anticipation of their grand opening ice cream social.
 
Claire is baking up a storm while her Chief Tasting Officer supervises quality and charms new customers. Not only are they launching their four-paw bakery, the pair must prepare for the town’s North at Fourth Fest, farmers markets, dog adoption events and a pawtriotic apple pie fundraiser .
 
Just when she thinks she has everything under control, the harried baker’s friend is arrested for murder! Now she and her clever Eurasier must sniff out clues to find the real killer.
 
More than fireworks are set off this Independence Day, proving murder never takes a holiday.
 
Fun mystery that kept me guessing to the end. The story opens as Claire prepares for her store's grand opening, the Posh Pup Pawtisserie. Her Eurasier pup, Baron, is a finicky eater, and Claire has put her experience creating foods for him to work in this endeavor. She is also heavily involved in community activities such as the town's Fourth of July celebration, dog adoption events, and a veterans and dogs charity fundraiser.
 
The first few chapters deal with her preparations and getting to know Claire, her friends, and various townspeople. A slight confrontation with an overly controlling official puts Claire and Baron in the car pulling the float rather than on the float itself. There she meets Nick, a hunky local firefighter whose cheerfulness makes the ride go much faster. He jumps in to help Claire with her setup and invites her to watch the fireworks from behind the scenes with him. There's lots going on at the festival, and I enjoyed seeing Claire's success.
 
But not everything is apple pie and fireworks. The next morning the festival's chairman, Kim, is found dead on the party boat. When Kim is rumored to be having an affair with Claire's friend Traci's husband, that makes Traci the number one suspect. Claire knows that there is no way Traci would have killed Kim and recruits her friends Marti and Bob to help her prove Traci's innocence.
 
There are plenty of twists and turns in this investigation. The more Claire noses around, the more questions she has. When two other people wind up dead, including Traci's husband, things don't look good for Traci. Claire's determination to find the truth kept me hooked as she dug deeper into the lives of the deceased. Political, financial, and emotional shenanigans created quite the tangle for Claire to unravel. When the final confrontation came, the killer nearly had another victim. The killer was not who I thought it was, and the motive was undoubtedly convoluted, but it all worked out in the end.
 
I liked meeting various townspeople and business owners, but there were so many of them it was hard to keep track of who was who. I didn't much care for some of the uber-wealthy folks who showed up. I was glad Claire got their business, but they were over-the-top entitled. I preferred the characters who worked with Claire, who seemed much more down-to-earth.