Duplicity Dogged the Dachshund

A former sheriff's deputy in Sarasota, Fla., Dixie Hemingway now earns a living as a pet sitter, a career that once again turns perilous when her charge, a dachshund, digs up a dead body at the start of Clement's fast-paced sophomore effort (after 2005's Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter). Dixie identifies the victim as Conrad Ferrelli, whose Doberman pinscher she once walked. A wealthy, eccentric son of a famous Ringling Brothers clown, Conrad and his wife, Stevie, were funding the creation of a retirement home for circus performers. But his brother, Denton, a vicious creep with mob connections, possesses no such charitable impulse. Clement builds suspense and delivers startling revelations as both Stevie and Dixie find themselves targets of Denton's resentment.