Review: Over ambitious novella or too short novel
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 10, 2014
Maltipoos are Murder was a fast moving, enjoyable cozy with some problems for me.It starts off with Cara having lost her veterinary license due to financial problems caused by her accounting firm.  Her employees lost their retirement funds.  Cara gets a job managing her great aunt's doggie spa.  On her first day, she find her aunt dead in the pool and the story goes from there.The characters were likable, but undeveloped and occasionally inconsistent, though one could argue that's true in real life.What I had problems with, but didn't cause me to hate the book or stop reading (but make me unable to give more than 3 stars):1.  Cara is 27, yet she was a vet with a private practice (we are not told her family is wealthy)and has an employee old enough to retire and lose her retirement funds, a fund Cara was responsible for? She'd just be getting her veterinary degree and license at 26 or 27 in my state.2.  Cara is impulsive, way too much.  She decides she has to pay her staff back for the funds that were taken from her instead of consulting a lawyer and trying to get her and their money back by legal means, she's instantly, ridiculously attracted to the detective despite just leaving a long term relationship.  She gets mad at the cop (Cole) when she sees him with another woman because he didn't tell her he was in a relationship, but she's not in a relationship with him, so why shouldn't he?  She's a suspect!3.  The story switches from 3rd to 1st person to 3rd person.  At first I thought it was first person when Cara was in the scene, but that's not always true.  It is only Cara's POV when it's in 1st person.4.  JD, her mother's male companion, sets up a meeting for Cara with an attorney about her legal issues yet Cara calls her former boyfriend and thanks him and he asks why he didn't do anything.  How could she forget who set up the appointment and arranged for a special rate (which she nor we get more details about)? Some of the inconsistency with characters is with JD, a some points he has a stick up his bum and others he seems like a really great guy (more so than Cara who's a bit bitchy towards him).5.  It's mentioned that Cara is accustomed to taking care of people since it started with her mother.  Why did she have to take care of her?  Her mother has a slightly amusing passion for all things British, but what's wrong with her? She lived in the same town as her aunt, why wouldn't the aunt have been her support (and for what?), not Cara?Part of the problem is that the book is 146 pages, a very long novella or a very short book.  If it was meant to be a novella it needed to be tightened and not so much included, like the romance (of sorts).  If it was supposed to be a book more could have been added which would have eliminated several of the problems I mentioned (character development/consistency, clarification of her financial/legal issues).This felt like the version right before the final, publishable copy to me.  As I mentioned, I did enjoy the read, and would happily read the next one.I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.