Skye Donovan just landed her first big photo shoot doing the upcoming calendar for The Pet Place, a national chain of pet stores. And while it's not anywhere in the league of say a big name swimsuit calendar for a new photographer, it's definitely a step up.

But when Frank Johnson, the owner and trainer of the doggie talent, is found dead, chaos ensues. And who should the investigating detective be; her sometimes boyfriend, Scott Madison. After finding Skye embroiled in another murder, Scott closes the photo shoot down until he finds the killer. Unable to convince him to let the shoot go on, Skye tries to speed the investigation up by diving headfirst into the case, only to learn that there were a lot of people who had reason to want the man dead.

There's Frank's former partner who thinks Frank cheated him out of his part of the business. Then there's the stylist working on the shoot who says Frank promised to sell him an award-winning show dog, only to back out at the last minute. And of course, there are all the locals who have been complaining about the noise from his kennel.

And then, there's Mayor Irene Knutson who is more than a little demanding that Scott come up with a suspect and pronto. Heck, even Skye's friend Lily has reason to hate the man.

Juggling photo shoots, murder suspects, a shaky love affair, and even shakier friends, Skye dives into the case placing not only herself but her relationship with Scott at risk.

If you are looking for a riveting detail oriented mystery this isn't it. But like the first book
If It's Not One Thing, It's Murder, the real strength in this story is the relationships between the women: the mother-daughter and the best-friends relationships. It's more a romantic/comedy/relationship story with touches of mystery. There's Skye's detective boyfriend, Scott, her daughter, her mother and her very pregnant best friend, and her boss running off to the Caribbean leaving her to deal with her first big photo shoot. Add to it the antics of the animal models and a dead body. So what do you have but chaos and a funny, funny book. Sleeping Dogs is a great light funny read.

Reviewed by Theresa
@ October 2010