The Bark Before Christmas

A Melanie Travis Mystery

By: Laurien Berenson

Narrated by: Jessica Almasy

Melanie Travis has her hands full with her two young sons, a part-time job, and a half dozen poodles to her name. But even with the busy holiday season approaching, she still has time to sniff out a Christmastime killer....

There's nothing lovelier than Christmas in Connecticut, but Melanie can scarcely find a moment to enjoy the festivities. With her youngest son approaching toddlerhood, she's decided to return to her old job at Howard Academy, a posh private school attended by the children of Greenwich's well-heeled gentry. Balancing work, motherhood, and the hectic dog show circuit takes some fancy footwork, especially when the headmaster taps her to be the chairman of the school's Christmas bazaar.

The Christmas bazaar is Howard Academy's biggest and most important fundraiser, so Melanie feels the pressure to make it a huge success. She even enlists her long-suffering sister-in-law, Bertie, to help with the Santa Claus and pets photo booth. But everything goes awry when a prize show dog goes missing, and Santa turns up dead. The dog's owner is one of the school's most perfectly pedigreed alums, and she enlists Melanie to help find the purloined pooch. But just as Melanie starts pawing at the truth, she digs up a sleighful of sinister secrets that leaves everyone feeling less than merry....

©2015 Laurien Berenson (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Dog Show World

A cute and entertaining book about the world of dog shows and the people who exhibit their dogs.

The bark before Christianity

The child made it entertaining. Lots of people for who done it. Sort of confusing any the end.

Lovely

Just a fun sweet novel. I love dogs and enjoy learning about showing dogs and the ease of the nature of her family life. The characters are enjoyable as our her extended family.

Disappointed

I am very disappointed in the ending. I do expect Justice to Prevail in Fiction

A dog show education.

I wasn't impressed. Too much repetition. Not necessary to say 'standard' every time poodle's mentioned..

Talented Narrator

What did you love best about The Bark Before Christmas?

I have read and listened to most of the Melanie Travis Mysteries. The author has a great sense of humor and family touch. Jessica Almasy brings it all together. There isn't a time in the story that I get confused as to which character is speaking and what a great "Kevin" job!!

Any additional comments?

I decided to write a short review because I was so impressed by the narrator. As you can tell, I have listened to a lot of audio books and feel narration can make or break a book.

book 18

loved the book. sorry to see that this will be the last book narrated by Jessica Almasy. hoping the next narrated story is not as bad as the reviews, here's hoping I will be able to listen to the rest of the series.

I wish it was a different narrator.

I really love this series even though at times it can be bogged down with dog show details. That was the case with this one. However, it was still a good story.

What I really dislike is this narrator and I wish with all my heart that someone else would narrate! Jessica is always in a rush, rush, rush. Why? Where is the fire? I have to dial it down to 0.9X speed! Plus, she uses this truly awful and fake British accent for Aunt Peg. Umm, Aunt Peg is from New England (Connecticut), not England. I am going to resort to the print version whenever there is Aunt Peg dialogue (hopefully not too much). The narration really is like nails on a chalkboard. I got the next 2 books from a sale, but might return them and use the virtual voice narration from the ebook. It would be a thousand times better than hearing Jessica Almasy!

Great series

It’s a great series, sad that the current narrator does not finish out the rest of the novels

Love Melanie Travis

Being a dog person that shows in performance events and occasionally confirmation, I really enjoy the Melanie Travis books. The information is spot-on and the stories are always a delight