Our fair heroine Melanie is up to her eyeballs in complicated situations. Her fiancé, Sam, is off somewhere “finding himself,” and outside of a very brief postcard, she hasn’t heard from him. Her seven-year-old son, Davey, is always a source of amusement, joy and stress. She works at a local private school as a tutor, and is trying to earn the final points necessary on the dog show circuit to retire her Standard Poodle, Faith. Naturally, this would be the time her ex-husband would show up looking to rekindle the home fires.

So the last thing our girl needs is a mystery - too bad her soon-to-be sister-in-law never got the memo. Bertie Kennedy is head over heels in love with Melanie’s brother, Frank. So in love, that the couple is planning a wedding to take place a mere six weeks away. Bertie really wants Christmas nuptials, so she hires Sara Bentley, a fellow dog handler, to moonlight as a wedding coordinator. The arrangement seems to be working smoothly until Sara vanishes. Bertie is naturally panicked, so she gives Melanie two options - take over the planning or help her find Sara.

Melanie throws herself into looking for Sara and uncovers a lot more than she bargained for. Between a disgruntled ex-boyfriend, a ticked off former competitor, and a detached family, the suspects are limitless. However, it’s when Sara’s cottage burns to the ground, and a dead body is recovered from the rubble, that the mystery shifts from finding a missing person, to a murder.

Amateur sleuth mysteries must have interesting and sympathetic leads in order for the book to fly. Melanie is not only quite charming and intelligent - but also the kind of woman that many readers would like to have as a friend. She doesn’t blindly throw herself into dangerous situations, instead weighing the consequences carefully. More often than not, she finds herself dragged into the investigation - even after it appears that all is well.

The mystery isn’t much of a brainteaser - I figured everything out right around the time the author was beginning to piece it all together - but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. Instead of becoming bored, I found myself continuing to flip the pages eagerly, thanks to the cast of likable characters.

Having read only one other previous installment in the series, I’m happy to report that Once Bitten stands alone quite well. Berenson has a way of introducing the principles (many of whom I knew) in a way that someone in the know won’t be skimming and a newcomer won’t be lost.

There’s a very nice quote on the paperback cover from fellow author Rita Mae Brown declaring, “You’ll read straight through to the end.” Since that is just what I did, I couldn’t agree with her more. A cozy and charming entry in a series I had largely ignored - until now.

--Wendy Crutcher