-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery
by Carol Lea Benjamin
Someone is killing off the great dog trainers of the world—and it's up to PI Rachel Alexander and her pit bull, Dash, to collar the murderer.
Rachel has just been hired as undercover security at a dog-training symposium at a posh Manhattan hotel. How can the Greenwich Village PI and her pit bull, Dashiell, turn down the hefty fee, plus free room and biscuits at the Ritz? All Rachel has to do is keep the peace among the competitive diva dog trainers who have come with their prize pooches from all corners of the globe.
She and Dash have barely infiltrated the festivities when they find out that one of the trainers, the self-proclaimed guru of a controversial obedience technique, has been electrocuted in his bathtub. The cops are calling it an accident. Until another trainer dies ... and then another. With suspects including a dog psychic and a behaviorist to the stars, Rachel discovers that it's the humans who need to be housebroken as she and Dash bring a serial killer to heel.
"Expertly blending dog-training lore with an excellent and satisfying mystery." —Publishers Weekly
"The writing is excellent, as always, with a nice touch of humor and just the right amount of off-stage violence. . . . Recommended for all mystery collections." —Library Journal
"Boasts appealing human and canine characters . . . will satisfy anyone who enjoys pet mysteries . . . Benjamin reminds readers that, more often than we care to admit, humans are the 'dumb animal' in the people-pet equation." —Booklist
"Carol Lea Benjamin is as good at writing mysteries as she is at writing about dogs." —Laurien Berenson, author of Underdog
This information about A Hell of a Dog was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Carol Lea Benjamin is the author of the Rachel Alexander and Dash mystery novels, which feature a Greenwich Village–based private investigator and her pit bull sidekick. This Dog for Hire, the first book in the series, won the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. Benjamin has also been a teacher, worked as a private investigator, trained dogs, and written dog-training manuals such as Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog. She lives in New York City with her husband and two dogs.
If you liked A Hell of a Dog, try these:
by C. Mallon
Published 2026
A singular, devastating debut novel, Dogs traces the fallout of one catastrophic night in the lives of five high school wrestlers, asking what can survive in the blast radius of latent trauma and violence.
by Richard Osman
Published 2025
Solving murders. It's a family business.
One Night Two Souls Went Walking
by Ellen Cooney
Published 2020
A young interfaith chaplain is joined on her hospital rounds one night by an unusual companion: a rough-and-tumble dog who may or may not be a ghost.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
