It's Christmas again, and Melanie Travis barely has time to pencil in some holiday festivities. Especially once she finds herself making a list of murder suspects--and checking it twice. . . This year, all Melanie wants for Christmas is a dull moment. Between her son Davey, her teaching job, and showing her Standard Poodle puppy, Eve, there just aren't enough hours in the day. But when Davey's usual bus driver, Henry Pruitt, disappears and is replaced by a surly, pierced, twentysomething, Melanie is concerned. The elderly, amiable Henry was a friend to all in the neighborhood, so she decides to check on him. . .only to find that he died two days earlier, under suspicious circumstances. As if that weren't bad enough, Henry's two Golden Retrievers are now bereft of both master and home. Melanie can't just abandon them, so she brings them to her Aunt Peg, the most stubborn woman on the planet, who's now determined to find out the truth about Henry's death, no matter what it takes. Soon, the indomitable Aunt Peg has Melanie leashed to another murder investigation. And unless she sniffs out this Scrooge of a killer fast, a lump of coal in her stocking may not be the worst thing Melanie gets this Christmas. . . “Delightful…As ever, the author provides a captivating behind-the-scenes look at the world of show dogs.” — Publishers Weekly   “Melanie Travis is a terrific character.” — RT Book Reviews Laurien Berenson is an Agatha and Macavity nominee, winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, and four time winner of the Maxwell Award, presented by the Dog Writers Association of America. She and her husband live on a farm in Kentucky surrounded by dogs and horses. Readers can visit her website at: www.LaurienBerenson.com. Jingle Bell Bark A Melanie Travis Mystery By Laurien Berenson KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. Copyright © 2004 Laurien Berenson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4967-0003-2 CHAPTER 1 Most people start the new year on January first. Not me, I'm a school teacher; I start out fresh in the fall. I've always found something rejuvenating about the tang of crisp autumn air, and the sound of feet shuffling through dry, fallen leaves. The coming of that new season never fails to lift my spirits and renew my enthusiasm for the year ahead. In keeping with this renewal I've taken to making resolutions at the start of each new school year. Now that I'm a few years into my thirties, I find the demands I choose to place upon myself have simplified. That whole eat-right, exercise-more, and lose-weight thing? Not happening around here. I mean, really, aside from super models and sitcom stars, who has the time? Some days I consider myself lucky if my shoes match. Each other, that is. Not my outfit. So this year when September rolled around, I made a different pledge, one more in keeping with the way my life was going now. I wanted a dull moment, I decided. Just one would do. An hour, or even half of one where nothing was required of me and there was nowhere I had to be. I wanted to kick back, put my feet up, and experience a little boredom. The idea sounded so simple. I knew other people had managed it. Why couldn't I seem to do the same? Perhaps the fact that I was a single mother had something to do with that. Davey is the light of my life and the other half of my heart. He's also a typical eight-year-old boy: loud, boisterous, often dirty, and always entertaining. And if he wasn't enough to keep me busy, our two housemates, Standard Poodles Faith and Eve, were always ready to fill in the blanks. The two big Poodles are mother and daughter and they share a number of traits. Both dogs are thoughtful and mischievous. They're also smarter than many people I know, which isn't necessarily a good thing when you consider that I work in education. The other person who's been known to occasionally lead me down the path of most resistance is my Aunt Peg, also known as Margaret Turnbull of Cedar Crest Kennels, breeder of Standard Poodles par excellence, newly appointed AKC judge, and a woman who has all the finesse of a Bullmastiff with a broken toe when it comes to going after what she wants. Aunt Peg often tries to run my life and occasionally succeeds. Recently, however, the majority of her domineering tactics had been directed toward my sister-in-law, Bertie, who was expecting her first child with my brother, Frank, in December. Never a mother herself, Aunt Peg was nevertheless a font of unsolicited advice. I knew it was selfish on my part, but still it was a relief to see Aunt Peg focus her attention on another relative for a change. Which is a long, roundabout way of saying that of late my life had been running rather smoothly; nearly the entire fall semester had passed uneventfully. With Thanksgiving just behind us, both my students and I were looking forward to the holiday season and Christmas break. And since he wasn't finding third grade to be too demanding, the biggest thing on Dav