Four-and-a-half stars, to be precise. Like every other book by Sandra Parshall, this one keeps you glued to the page until the very end. If you like your mysteries medium-boiled, make sure to add this series to your TBR pile!

The writing is graceful, the characters, both major and minor, fully fleshed out and alive on the page. Protagonists veterinarian Rachel Goddard and deputy-sheriff Tom Bridger are sympathetic but also human and the murdered man's well-to-do family as satisfying dysfunctional as any in Raymond Chandler. The plotting is exceptionally well-done with a goodly assortment of folks with probable cause and a little twist at the end. Rachel's race to save a wrongly accused pack of feral dogs from vigilantes and to save a little girl in trouble engages the reader in contemporary social issues without falling into the trap of preaching. The story is seamlessly woven together and the ending is satisfying. I look forward to the next book in this series.