Gwinny Tuffel’s attempts to reawaken her acting career is going well, with a lead role in a West End play. Until, that is, she turns up to rehearsal to find she has been recast as the “old lady” character. Still, money is money, and her dog-sitting sideline is going well too. Crash Double, the famous rock star – admittedly his best days are long behind him – is heading off to a festival in Dublin to avoid the Canal Carnival centred around area where his houseboat is moored.

Gwinny finds herself looking after Ace, Crash’s border collie, and despite him being a bit of a handful, things are going very well. Until right in the middle of the Carnival, Crash’s body rises to the surface…

So I’ve read this series in the order 3, 1, 4, 2. Not my usual routine, I know, but it seemed to work. Admittedly, I was hooked on Gwinny from early on in The Dog Sitter Detective Plays Dead – and reading them out of order was never an issue. Admittedly I’ve read Gwinny and Birch – a retired DCI – and their slowly developing relationship out of order, but it’s not as if there’s any surprises in this rather sweet couple.

I’ve also met Anthony Johnston a couple of times now, at Stockport Noir and Death In The Dales – lovely chap. He’s also written the Do-It-Yourself Can You Solve The Murder? Book and I’m really looking forward to taking part in the live event he’s running at Stockport Noir on Saturday. A man of many talents – I really must watch Atomic Blonde at some point.

Anyway, back to the book. Let’s miss out the usual “ignore the cosy title” warning, this is a proper mystery with interesting and varied characters, solid alibis and a fairly closed circle of suspects. Oh, and Ace the border collie is absolutely fabulous! Admittedly, there was one bit of the plot that did make me look too closely at the eventual murderer, but there’s a lot to actually figure out – not just who, but how, why and… well, who again – and I was nowhere near spotting everything. Most of the clues are there, but it would take a better armchair sleuth that me to piece it all together. Oh, that doesn’t bode well for Saturday, does it?

So, another entertaining read in one of my favourite new series. Looking forward to see whatever comes next for Gwinny.