Unleashed

by Eileen Brady

Overview

Dr. Kate Turner is happy with her new life in Oak Falls, upstate New York. Working as a relief veterinarian at a small house-call practice, she truly enjoys helping her patients.

All that changes when client Claire Birnham is found dead, an apparent suicide. A talented artist, Claire had everything to live for: new job, Manhattan apartment, her Cairn terrier Toto. As feisty as the Wizard of Oz Toto, he and Claire were devoted. Kate can't imagine Claire simply abandoning her pet. Was her death murder?

Questions end in the police arresting young kennel helper Eugene. The fragile friendship between Kate and police officer Luke Gianetti frays as she ignores his advice and keeps asking questions. House calls provide gossip and clues, some helpful, some not so much, as she treats her animal patients. Did Claire's recent insurance windfall prove too tempting for her hard-working and hard-drinking mother? What does trouble in the art gallery where Claire worked signal? How huge a grudge did heavy metal rocker A.J. hold against high-school sweetheart Claire after she dumped him? Was Claire a threat to AJ's rich new girl?

Dr. Kate mixes real medicine with murder as she risks her life over Claire's death, aided by insights from a former fire investigator, aka her Gramps. Unleashed is as irresistible as Muzzled.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781464203947
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	08/04/2015
Series:	Kate Turner, DVM, Mysteries , #2
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Eileen Brady is a veterinarian living in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is a wife and mother of two daughters and often has to chase her six cats and two dogs away from her laptop keyboard. The Kate Turner, DVM Mysteries is her first series.

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2015
Dr. Kate Turner is happy to fill in for a veterinarian in Oak Falls, NY, who is on a yearlong sabbatical. But she is devastated when her friend, artist Claire Birnham, is found dead. First the police think it's suicide, but then they arrest the mentally challenged young man who works at Kate's clinic. Kate knows Eugene would never hurt anyone, especially Claire, since he adores her tiny Cairn terrier, Toto. Who would want to kill Claire, who was on the verge of moving to Manhattan with its thriving art scene? Was it Gilda, the selfish gallery owner? Or Claire's violent ex-boyfriend? VERDICT Brady's sophomore effort (after Muzzled) is an appealing mix of murder and medicine. Kate is an amiable heroine with lots of spunk. Not willing to leave well enough alone, she joins the list of cozy amateur sleuths such as Laura Childs's Theodosia Browning and Jane Cleland's Josie Prescott.

Library Journal

2015-05-20
Now that curiosity has killed the cat, will it kill the veterinarian? Dr. Kate Turner is working as a relief vet in a charming Hudson River town. With her assistant, Mari, she travels the countryside treating everything from cats and dogs to llamas and pigs. When one of her clients, Claire Birnham, is found dead, an apparent suicide, Kate immediately suspects that all is not what it seems. Claire, who'd left her precious cairn terrier, Toto, at Kate's office after he was bitten by a rat, had seemed very happy with her new job in a Manhattan art gallery and had been eager to move to the city. The romance that always seems promised by Kate's friendship with police officer Luke Gianetti is forestalled once more when she calls him with her theory that Claire was murdered. Even her grandfather, a former arson investigator, warns her to mind her own business. But Kate thinks talking to people won't hurt and may turn up some suspects. Indeed, many more people might have wanted Claire dead than Kate imagines. Her alcoholic mother stands to inherit a pile of money from an insurance policy, and her abusive former boyfriend is a handsome rocker with a jealous new girlfriend. Claire herself, a talented artist, was leaving a job at a local gallery whose owner may be involved in selling fraudulent artworks. When Kate's kennel assistant, a young man with brain damage, is arrested for the crime, she redoubles her efforts to find a calculating killer. Kate's second (Muzzled, 2014) is a treat for animal lovers. The plethora of suspects keeps you guessing.

Kirkus Reviews

"Brady's sophomore effort is an appealing mix of murder and medicine. Kate is an amiable heroine with lots of spunk. Not willing to leave well enough alone, she joins the list of cozy amateur sleuths such as Laura Childs's Theodosia Browning and Jane Cleland's Josie Prescott." — Library Journal

"In Brady's amusing, well-plotted second Kate Turner mystery, the Oak Falls, N.Y., veterinarian investigates the death of Claire Birnham, whose Cairn terrier was treated at the local veterinary hospital. Claire appears to have committed suicide, but it begins to look like a case of foul play after various pet owners reveal details about the woman's life...Turner treats a pot-bellied pig and a smelly cocker spaniel, besides getting chased by a flock of geese. Readers will eagerly look forward to Kate's further adventures." — Publishers Weekly

"Now that curiosity has killed the cat, will it kill the veterinarian?…Kate's second is a treat for animal lovers. The plethora of suspects keeps you guessing." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

" Unleashed provides a Kate Turner, DVM mystery and will delight mystery fans who look for investigators who are not professional sleuths. Dr. Turner leads a quiet life in upstate New York working as a relief vet, until a client is found dead and is billed as a suicide. The problem is: Kate knows this is very unlikely, and can't imagine Claire abandoned her beloved pet in favor of death. Kate's investigation leads to animal encounters, questionable perps, and an intricate web of involvements with too many possibilities. Vet medicine and murder mix in a satisfyingly complex, realistic way in this vivid page-turner."

California Bookwatch

"An ideal mystery for animal lovers and mystery devotees. Brady does an excellent job of explaining veterinary terminology in a seamless way and taking readers into the field with her protagonist, Dr. Kate Turner."

The Book Breeze