In Under the Dog Star, veterinarian Rachel Goddard confronts issues that she and I are both passionate about: mistreatment of animals and child neglect. I have tried to present real-world problems in the context of a gripping story—and without including graphic scenes of abuse.
Rachel can’t stand by while animals suffer–and she feels equally driven to act if she believes a child is mistreated. In Under the Dog Star, she makes enemies as she scrambles to save feral dogs wrongly accused of killing a prominent doctor, and at the same time becomes entangled in the sad, loveless lives of the doctor’s young adopted children.
Under the Dog Star is a fast-paced mystery, praised by Kirkus Reviews for “spine-chilling tension from cover to cover,” but it is also a story about the meaning of family, the power of compassion, and the duty people have to the animals that share our lives.