Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha) likes to think of herself as a normal person, even though she has a rather abnormal vocation. She trains service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD. Then the former marine owner of her first trainee is accused of murdering his wife, and Marcia gets sucked into an even more abnormal avocation – amateur sleuth.

Called in to dog-sit the Labrador service dog, Buddy, she’s outraged that his veteran owner is being presumed guilty until proven innocent. With Buddy’s help, she tries to uncover the real killer. Even after the hunky local sheriff politely tells her to butt out, Marcia keeps poking around. Until the killer finally pokes back.

Author’s note: no dogs die in this series; the titles are take-offs from classic book, movie, or song titles.

We had a Labrador for fourteen years. He’s been gone for longer than that now, and I still miss him. So, I’m a soft touch for any book with a Labrador as one of the characters – unless you kill the Labrador – in which case I’m out. I knew that, despite the alarming title, the Labrador didn’t die in this one, even before I read the author’s note, because he’s Buddy in the Marcia and Buddy Mystery series, which currently stands at thirteen books.

‘To Kill a Labrador’ is the book that sets up the series, introducing Marcia, who trains service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD, and Buddy, a very smart Labrador who was the first dog Marcia trained.

This was an entertaining cosy mystery. The plot was complicated enough that I stayed interested in the mystery of who killed the former marine’s wife. Most of the violence was off-screen, but the sense of threat grew throughout the book and at least one of the deaths was upsetting. Once I understood what was happening, I really wanted the bad guys taken down – sadly – being a Labrador, Buddy is not an attack dog, but he still played his part.

I liked the parts of the book about how the dog training worked. There was enough detail to make it interesting without turning it into a lecture, and it was presented in a way that built my understanding of Marcia and Buddy’s personalities. (If you don’t think dogs have personalities, this book isn’t for you.)

The pacing built the sense of threat nicely and meted out exposition in small dog-treat-sized portions to keep me guessing. The action scenes worked, and Kassandra Lamb contrived to keep Marcia’s involvement in the investigation plausible.

There’s some light romance (mainly Marcia mentally turning the sheriff into a sex object while simultaneously trying to deny her attraction. It was cute at first but had grown old before the end of the book.

I liked Marcia. She’s kind, brave, clever and sometimes witty. Buddy was my kind of dog: smart, sometimes puzzled by humans but always tolerant of their peculiarities, curious, eager to get involved, confident of his skills and loyal to his humans.

Amy Deuchler’s narration was easy on the ear and drew me into the story, which is just as well, as I bought an audiobook that bundles the first four books.

I’ll be back for more of this series the next time I want to relax into a cosy mystery in the company of a Labrador.