Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A Deadly Bone to Pick by Peggy Rothschild is a cozy mystery that will appeal to pet-lovers everywhere! The story revolves around ex-police officer Molly, who has just moved across the country to California with her golden retriever, Harlow. But her dreams of beachside paradise are shattered when her neighbor's dog discovers a severed hand on the beach. Who could have committed this murder? And why are the police suspicious of her? It's up to Molly and her loyal dogs to solve the case!

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1, which is from Molly's point of view:

"“Please be careful with that.” I winced as the two muscle-bound men, dressed in matching navy-blue uniforms, wrestled the antique ship captain’s desk through the front door. “It was my great-grandfather’s.” In reality, it had belonged to something like my great-great-great-great-grandfather. But why would they care? Nor would they care that Mom insisted I take the desk—part of a misguided effort to show she believed I’d move back to Massachusetts one day.
My golden retriever, Harlow, tail waving, practically vibrated with her desire to meet these potential new friends.
“Stay.” As much as I expected every person to love my dog, this was not the time. Ever obedient, she settled onto the travertine tile.
...
I wanted this move to work out. No, not wanted. Needed. I needed this move to work out."

Overall, A Deadly Bone to Pick is a light-hearted mystery that will appeal to dog-lovers everywhere. One highlight of this book is the focus on the dogs in the plot. Often, mysteries focus on the human characters only. It's clear from the adorable image of a dogbone at the beginning of each chapter, that the dogs will play almost as important of a role as the humans in this book. I'm sure that anyone who has ever owned a dog will adore this book. If I had to complain about 1 thing, I would say that I was expecting a bit more action and tension in this mystery. That's just a personal preference though, since many people enjoy reading mysteries that are a bit more light-hearted. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of cozy mysteries in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in February!

A Deadly Bone to Pick by Peggy Rothschild is a stand-alone mystery novel. Molly Madison (our heroine) has just moved with her golden retriever, Harlow to a small beach side town, Pier Point, California. Molly is a former police officer and P.I., and after the death of her husband, she plans to start over, becoming a dog wrangler. Turns out, Molly is very good training dogs, and as she meets her friendly neighbors, and she gets off to a great start.

However, on the first day she moved in, a big slobbering Saint Berdoodle, stands outside her door, wanting to come in. Molly meets one of her neighbors, who explains that Noodle (the dog) is always walking into people’s houses, as he is an escape artist, when his owner (emergency room doctor) is away working long hours at the hospital. Molly, of course, takes it upon herself to train Noodle, after getting permission from the doctor.
Molly takes Harlow and Noodle on their daily walk on the beach, and Noodle finds a severed hand; she calls the police. She meets two detectives, who question her, one being nice and cute, and the other a mean and nasty. In a short time, it will be discovered that Molly was a suspect in the death of her husband, who had been murdered; but the real murderer was found, exonerating her; the bad detective kept pushing that she might be responsible for all the bad things happening in town. Molly doesn’t want to get involved, but her police training makes her look into finding clues.

While the mystery remains, it was nice to see Molly become friendly with some of her neighbors, helping train their dogs, and teach a young girl. I thought that was a fun part of the story, especially with so many dog tips along the way. Most of all I loved both Noodle and Harlow.

What follows is an exciting, fun cozy mystery in a town filled with secrets that will put Molly’s life in danger. I did like some of the secondary characters, especially the good cop, and some other neighbors. Harlow and Noodle were so great with Molly, and it was fun to see other dogs benefiting from her expertise. A Deadly Bond to Pick was an excellent story that was very well written by Peggy Rothschild. The last half of the book was tense and exciting. If you like mystery suspense stories, you should read A Deadly Bond to Pick.

3.5 STARS

Former canine cop and then P.I. but now retired, Molly Madison has left her East Coast home to start over in sunny California leaving behind too many memories and hurts including the loss of her husband. Molly hopes her new small community will be the starting point of a drama free life, but that quickly changes with a gruesome discovery.

Besides training her own dog, Molly volunteers to help a neighbor who is rarely home train and care for his big, drooly, Saint Berdoodle as the pesky pet is a nuisance in their beachside town. While walking on the beach, Noodle the doodle digs up a severed hand and suddenly Molly is right back in the thick of things with an investigation in which she is also a suspect. Molly has a past tragedy in her life that puts her character into question so that one of the local detectives wants to think the worst of her. When another piece of evidence turns up, Molly is once again in the spotlight.

Molly spends her days getting to know the neighbors, walking and training her and their dogs, and trying to do some detective work on her own since it is apparently in her blood. Molly’s reputation as a dog whisperer finds her some other clients helping to introduce her to the community folk and their local dramas. Strange things keep escalating to the point where it seems Molly just might be in peril as well. She just cannot keep her nose out of police business and someone in her neighborhood is lurking with deadly intent.

This new series will appeal to mystery readers who also are canine fans especially with details pertaining to obedience and agility training. While there is no romance in this story, hints for a possible future relationship are evident. The dog theme is quite abundant so that may be a plus or minus depending one’s reading taste. The ending seemed a bit abrupt as well; the clues about the perpetrator are very sparse making the reveal seem a bit surprising.

"A Deadly Bone to Pick" is a cozy mystery. It took a bit to get into the mystery, though. Molly's settling in and working with the dogs. One dog found a severed hand and later a unique wedding ring. Then a neighbor was found dead. The police were so much at a loss at finding suspects that a jerk cop basically accused Molly and expended resources trying to find some vague, meaningless connection. This pushed her into investigating the clues and connections herself, and she still had her P.I. resources to do research on people.

Throughout the story, we got dog training as Molly helped a smart, young girl (awesome character) with her puppy and an adult neighbor with a deaf puppy. The main characters were interesting and acted realistically. Some of the characters really charmed me, like the girl, the party boy neighbor, and of course the dogs. Absolutely loved the ending with Noodles showing off his new training in the best way possible! However, I had whodunit figured out long before Molly. Certain factors (like the fact this is a cozy mystery) limited the suspect pool, so I had an advantage. But it was a fun read anyway.

There was no sex. There was some bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this engaging, interesting mystery.

Throughly enjoyable! If you love mystery novels and dogs, this is definitely the book for you! The storyline was interesting and kept me guessing and flipping the pages. Harlow and Noodle, the 2 adorable dogs in this story just added to the book and made it even more fun and enjoyable. There is a lot of dog training info and facts about dogs lightly sprinkled in throughout the book which was neat.

Thank you Berkley and Net Galley for an ARC in review for my honest review.

First in a new mystery series, this book has an interesting premise and characters, and I can see the series becoming a hit. I enjoyed this first book, like the books backstory and love the dogs, Harlow and Doodle.

Molly trains dogs. She has her own and the others can watch her work. Then the new dog that she's teaching comes back with a woman's hand...
Berkley and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published February 8th, 2022.

Soon she has the cops over asking her questions like she's a suspect. Then there are two more murders. Molly used to be a cop, so she has some questions of her own.

It's a good thing she loves dogs because the killer comes after her...

A Deadly Bone to Pick by Peggy Rothschild was the perfect book for an otherwise boring day. I hope there are more Molly Madison books to come.