Laura Morrigan

A Tiger's Tale, the book preceding this one was good. Really good. The kind that can often be hard to match, but I think Horse of a Different Killer succeeded.

A Tiger's Tale ended with the appearance on the scene of Grace's ex-brother-in-law, the man who beat Grace's sister and put her in the hospital. Horse of a Different Killer begins with Grace finding out he's dead: found murdered in his office with Grace's sister standing over the body.


Nobody could figure out why Ortega outbid everyone at the charity auction to win Grace's services working with animals: he didn't have any animals and wouldn't care enough about them to help if he did. But after his murder, Grace is contacted by Ortega's new fiancee and hired to find her missing horse, a horse Ortega bought for her as a gift. It's disappeared en route and the police don't believe the horse ever made it into the country.

So Grace doesn't involve herself in a police investigation; she starts looking for the missing horse. If the horse's disappearance had something to do with the murder, well, she did try to tell them....

Jack-Jack the donkey, Boris the tiger, and Logan the Ghost are all back. There's no love triangle, although I'm quite certain there's meant to be sexual tension between Logan and Grace. I get the feeling he's going to serve more as a guardian angel with mafia ties. If so, I'm totally on-board with this plan. He introduces an amount of zing to the story without interfering with Kai and Grace. I'm not so sure I like the introduction of Boyle the too-bitchy-to-be-believed detective, but hopefully she'll crawl back into the hole she came from.

All in all, a great read, well-written and well-plotted. Looking forward to more.… (altro)

Very well done murder mystery with a twist. We can all talk to animals, but they talk back to Grace :)

Great main and supporting characters with enough dimension that they fit nicely into the story but leave plenty of room for more prominent roles in future books. A little humor, a little romance, a little psychic ability and lots of mystery with twists and turns.

I read quite a bit, and am picky about what books I leave four stars for (my five stars are extremely rare). This one deserves a great review, and I look forward to reading more in the series.… (altro)

This is one of two series I'd have sworn I would have disliked because as much as I love animals, I don't care for books that overly anthropomorphise them. The premise of this series is a woman who can telepathically communicate with all animals and uses this gift to solve crimes.

But Morrigan does such a good job with this; if such a gift as this existed, I imagine it would manifest itself similarly to the author's idea of it: images, emotions, and for domesticated animals a limited number of words they've learned associations for. Guard. Treat. Stay. Outside.

Additionally the characters are great. Relationships are positive, personalities are interesting. There's no love triangle, but there is an intriguing man of mystery in the background, where it seems he'll stay.

The mystery in this one was good, but it really skirted a line between mystery and sci-fi. It isn't, but the ending... well, no spoilers. But I was rolling my eyes a tiny bit. Touch over the top. She also skirts some animal cruelty issues; not enough to be in your face, but enough to be a little confronting. Thankfully she strikes that delicate balance.

Also, I should just mention: this mystery isn't about a murder (although there's a cold case murder very peripherally connected); it's about a missing person. I know some people really enjoy mysteries that don't involve murder, so I thought I'd mention it here.

Can't wait for the next one!… (altro)

REVIEW: Very Fun! Resonates with the animal lover in me that wishes I could talk to my furry friends. But be careful what you wish for ... it could get complicated quickly!

DESCRIPTION, NOT REVIEW: Animal behaviorist Grace Wilde keeps her ability to psychically communicate with furry and feathered critters under wraps. But when a Doberman turns out to be the only witness to a crime, Grace will have to let the cat out of the bag in order to catch a killer.

Grace Wilde’s job is anything but normal. When she’s not helping out at the zoo by comforting agitated lemurs, she’s listening to the woes of annoyed house pets. Grace’s life gets even more complicated, though, when the cops summon her to a crime scene to help deal with the murder victim’s terrified Doberman.

The pooch turns out to be the only one who saw what happened the night of the shooting—and only Grace can get the information out of him. The problem is, how will Grace tell the distractingly gorgeous Sergeant Kai Duncan that it’s the dog who’s giving her the intel without spilling her big secret or sounding crazy? Left on her own, Grace will have to follow the pup’s lead to track down the killer. But she’ll have to be careful—or curiosity may end up killing the cat whisperer.… (altro)