The Wicked Flea (28 page)
Authors: Susan Conant
—Tony Hillermon
A Nest in the Ashes
0-425-18404-8
Death of a Songbird
0-425-18044-1
A Rant of Ravens
0-425-17360-7
Available wherever books are sold or to order call I -800-788-6262
NANCY FAIRBANKS
The Culinary Mystery series with recipes
Crime Brulee 0-425-17918-4
Carolyn accompanies her husband to an academic conference in New Orleans. She gets a chance to visit some old college pals and uses the opportunity to write a story about Cajun cusine. But just as she gets a taste of Creole, she gets a bite of crime when her friend Julienne disappears at a dinner party.
Truffled Feathers 0-425-18272-X
The CEO of a large pharmaceutical company has invited Carolyn and her husband to the Big Apple for some serious wining and dining. But before she gets a chance to get a true taste of New York, the CEO is dead—he keeled over after a heaping helping of pastrami. Talk about high cholesterol.
Or was it high crime?
Death a I’Orange 0-425-18524-9
It’s a culinary tour de France for Carolyn Blue and her family as they travel through Normandy and the Loire valley with a group of academics. But when murder shows up on the menu, Carolyn is once again investigating crime as well as cuisine.
“Sure to satisfy the cravings of both gourmands and mystery lovers.” —Earlene Fowler
AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD OR TO ORDER CALL:
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800
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788-6262
“Toss Ms. Conant a biscuit. If there’s a class called ‘dog mysteries,’ she’s got a best of breed.”
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Rendezvous
SUSAN CONANT is a three-time recipient of the Maxwell Award for Fiction Writing given by the Dog Writers’ Association of America. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with her husband, two cats, and two Alaskan malamutes.
1
Reserve Winners Bitch at the Alaskan Malamute National Speciality, the annual nationwide all-malamute show. In contrast to going R.W.B. at a little local show, going Reserve at the National is a great honor, like getting a silver medal at the Olympics or having your novel short-listed for the Booker Prize, only more so.—H. W.
2
Sires are fathers, and dams are mothers. An AM/CAN CH is an American and Canadian champion. When Cindy writes that Emma is the product of an outcross, she means that Emma’s father and mother were unrelated.—H. W.
3
The mother was pregnant, but absorbed the fetuses. Resorbtion occurs in people, too. It’s an explanation for the “vanishing twin syndrome,” in which one ultrasound shows twins and the next shows a singleton.—H. W.
4
Pyometra is a uterine disease of dogs (and cats, too).—H. W.
5
Horrors! If you don’t show your dogs, you may imagine all sorts of hideous scenarios. Let me explain that no military officers were involved and that Howie is a malamute, Emma’s brother, CH Jazz-land’s How High the Moon, whom I’ve mentioned before, but briefly. When Howie took a four-point major, he won four championship points. In other words, he had lots of competition.—H. W.
6
OFA, the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, maintains databases that allow breeders to assess inherited problems, including hip dysplasia. Search online! http://www.offa.org.—H. W.
7
CHD, chondrodysplasia (“dwarfism”), is a genetic disease that affects the bones and joints. In Alaskan malamutes, it causes a particular kind of anemia. The trait is recessive. Rowdy has a very low probability of being a carrier.—H. W.
8
CERF, the Canine Eye Research Foundation, is more or less the OFA for eye disease. See for yourself at
http:///www.umdb.org/
cerf.html.—H. W.
9
Hypothyroidism is quite common in dogs. Here, I am presenting evidence that Rowdy is not hypothyroid. Careful breeders place their greatest trust in the results of thyroid testing done by the Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Interested?
http://www.ahdl.msu.edu/ahdl/
ctr.htm.—H. W.
10
Canine brucellosis is a contagious disease that causes sterility and miscarriage. A sexually transmitted disease, it can also spread via infected tissue and bodily fluids.—H. W.
* Reserve Winners Bitch. My stepmother is talking about a dog show. Naturally she is. She’s married to my father. She means that in the competition among female bichons who weren’t yet champions, Molly just missed the championship points, which went to another female, the Winners Bitch. W.B. Winners Bitch. R.W.B.: close but no cigar.—H. W.
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