Winter is hard in Beauville, where the melting snow can reveal much more than last season's dead leaves. So when a wealthy, obnoxious tourist and his ski bunny girlfriend surface in Pru Marlowe's little Berkshire town, she knows she should stay out of their way. The bad-girl animal psychic has to focus on more immediate concerns, including a wild rabbit named Henry, supposedly tamed and illegally living with an eighty-four-year-old lady in her home. Henry, who seems to be acting out and hiding, avoids responding to Pru. Yet when Pru discovers the tourist murdered and his girlfriend's high-maintenance spaniel falls to her care, she gets dragged into a complicated case of crime and punishment that involves some new friends, an old nemesis, and her own shadowed past. A recent museum art heist draws the feds into the investigation along with a courtly gentleman radiating menace, who represents secretive business interests in New York and shows a surprising awareness of Pru. Her on-again, off-again romance with police Detective Creighton doesn't stop him from warning her to steer clear of the inquiry. The spaniel, however, lures her in. Pru lives in a world where only her crotchety tabby Wallis knows the whole truth about her past, her flight from Manhattan, and her unique gift that surfaced abruptly one day. Fearing the worst, Pru now comes dangerously close to being exposed. With everything in motion, Pru, Wallis, and everyone they hold dear will be lucky to escape...by a hare. A refreshing read-- "NetGalley" Beauville, Massachusetts is having one of its worst March winters in history, and all of the residents are suffering from cabin fever. The angry outburst by an angry restaurant customer still manages to stand out though, especially when his obnoxious demands reduce his ski bunny companion to near-tears. The bigger surprise is that when a body is found, it's that of the belligerent diner Teddy Rhinecrest, and the arrested culprit his meek girlfriend Cheryl Ginger. Animal behaviorist and pet-sitter Pru Marlowe is skilled at interpreting animal behavior and motivations, but humans prove to be far more confusing and complicated. Perhaps her comfort with her charges derives from her unique ability not only to sense what animals are thinking and feeling, but to hear the thoughts of her own feline companion, Wallis. No one knows better than Pru how even the mildest of prey can be turned vicious when threatened, but she questions whether the skittish Cheryl was the one with the most reasons for wanting Teddy dead. The unnerving reappearance of Gregor Benazi, a lethal and very dapper criminal magnate with whom Pru has a tentative d賥nte, further complicates this case of a mistress done wrong. As much as he would prefer it, Pru's almost-boyfriend Detective Jim Creighton knows better than to order Pru to stay uninvolved. Fate and Pru's dedication to her non-human clients compels her into using her inexplicable and unasked for skills to untangle an increasingly tangled web of criminal activities and deception. Much of the enjoyment of this fifth in the series stems from Pru attempting to apply her animal behaviorist skills upon humans. The results may be mixed, but they are always fun. Pru continues to be annoyed by the gossip-mongering person of bichon frise "Bitsy" (he prefers to be called Growler), the creepy minder of a ferret has an equally repellent cousin, and the wild animals Pru encounters prove to be the most sane and least neurotic of all. Pru fled the city and the confined spaces that seemed to amplify the voices in her head, and it is in small, economically struggling Beauville that she is learning to adjust by modeling her behavior on the non-humans she admires. Pru's wry voice, sharp intelligence, and empathy for animals guarantee that this elaborately-plotted mystery will entertain with its good humor and compellingly quirky characters.-- "NetGalley" Bunnies abound in this new entry in the Pru Marlowe Pet Noir series. There's the wild bunny being kept illegally by an elderly woman who calls on Pru because she's heard of Pru's skill as an animal behaviorist; there's the bunny in the painting stolen in a recent art heist; and then there's that fixture of the resort slopes, the ski bunny. The latter is Cheryl, the arm-candy girlfriend of an obnoxious businessman type named Teddy Rhinecrest. Pru encounters the couple while out with her sometime boyfriend and full time police detective Jim Creighton. What should have been a nice dinner is spoiled when Rhinecrest picks a fight with his girlfriend Cheryl, the aforementioned ski bunny. Creighton steps in to calm things down, but it won't come as any surprise to readers when Teddy turns up dead. For once, Pru doesn't have a personal stake in the investigation. She really doesn't want to be involved, but then Cheryl calls Pru for help with her King Charles Spaniel. Pru goes to help the dog and finds things are more complicated than she expected. . . not to men