The book contained some good description and a few funny moments, but overall, it was not a good read. The plot dragged and was repetitive, and more than once, I wanted to scream at the main character for ignoring obvious clues just to stretch out the the story. I could have solved the mystery in fifty pages. The ongoing sexism and borderline racism were dealbreakers for me, too.

The paper was too white, the paper was too heavy, but maybe that was the best paper option available. I am just glad this book got printed.
The story great. I liked the characters, got curious about them. The story developed in a nice tempo, with enough side information to make the characters and story more interesting, but not too much too become distracting from the story.
There will, most likely, be more appearances of Rochester and Steve on my reading list.

The story is engaging. We first encounter the protagonist, a felon under the supervision of the parole officer who is attempting to rebuild his shattered life when he comes upon the body of his neighbor, and then becomes the owner of—or perhaps more accurately becomes owned by—her dog.

Gradually the tension builds as the protagonist is pushed, pulled, and prodded by the dog to investigate one clue after another until finally—well, you'll have to read the book.

Overall, a charming, light story with enough intrigue and plot twists to keep me going to the end.

Note: There are a half-dozen or so spelling and grammar errors in the book that took me out of the story. Mistakes happen, but still, proofreading is an important part of storytelling.

This is apparently the first of a series of books about one Steve Levitan. He has recently been paroled from jail in California and has removed himself to Bucks County in Pennsylvania, where he grew up, and where he has a house due to his father's having passed away while he was in prison. He was jailed for computer hacking, and has promised never to hack again. A parole officer checks his computer every week or so to make sure there are no inappropriate searches.

Steve has a job as an adjunct at a nearby college, teaching English. That's interesting in that he complains a lot about correcting grammar and so forth. But, what's interesting is there are a number errors in this book, some grammatical some inappropriate words. "Physician heal thyself."

Anyway, Steve's next door neighbor is murdered and he inherits said neighbor's golden retriever. Here to fore, Steve has not been a dog person, so perhaps he can be excused for doing dumb things like using a retractable leash and describing the Golden in terms more appropriate to a Rottweiler or bull dog. I mean, Goldens are not notably slobbery, in my experience at least. Perhaps my Goldens, Cider Anne and Brewster, were notable exceptions, but I didn't notice slobber problems at the Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue, when I was looking to adopt. [Adopting Goldens were awesomes decision on my part, by the way].

Anyway, Steve tries to be good, but he just can't help himself with the hacking. He manages to keep it secret, mostly. Also, he eventually finds the murderer of his neighbor. I dunno, the book was ok, but I didn't find it all that intriguing. I'll likely not move on with the series. Weird, because I rather like mysteries and am besotted by Golden Retrievers.

Readable

I found this book readable. The plot was interesting. Although I found the writing to be filled with quite a lot of waffle, which I think took away from the good plot. I won't be reading any more books by this author.

This murder mystery is the first in a series and was good enough to make me want to continue with the series. The plot is just intricate enough to make the reader work a bit to try to figure out what's going on (along with the human protagonist Steve and his newly acquired Golden Retriever, Rochester). There are four murders, actually, and initially at least two separate cases. One involves the murder of Steve's neighbor (and owner of Rochester) which has very few clues for Steve's old friend the local police detective. The other case involves a deepening identity theft of Steve's old piano teacher, a widow who has been unable to keep track of the various investments her husband left her. Rochester provides invaluable clues for both cases, which begin to seem to overlap in motives and perpetrators. All in all, Steve learns how to be a dog companion and to adjust to being an ex-con trying to rebuild his life. It's a good story and told well, so I'll be back for more. Besides, I suspect that Rochester is a lot smarter than everyone assumes.

The book started slow and I considered giving up on it more than once. Eventually, it did pick up and ended very well. I did enjoy the stuff about the narrator's hacking.

Is the book believable? Nope. There's a lot of "right person in the right place at the right time." It is a fun read? Yes, it is (eventually).