High in Trial

Raine Stockton Dog Mysteries, Volume 7

By: Donna Ball

Narrated by: Donna Postel

Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

A weekend competition turns deadly in this seventh Raine Stockton Dog Mystery.

Dog trainer Raine Stockton and her happy-go-lucky golden retriever, Cisco, have been looking forward to the opening weekend of AKC competitive agility all winter. They travel to the low country of South Carolina to compete against some of the top dogs in the Southeast for blue ribbons, squeaky toys, and perhaps even that elusive title of High in Trial. But even in this carefree atmosphere of high-spirited dogs and dedicated owners, ambition runs high, and when one of the competitors is found brutally murdered it begins to look as though corruption might have penetrated even this last bastion of decency and sportsmanship, the AKC.

While Raine and Cisco stalk a killer, back home a 20-year-old mystery is unfolding--one that will have devastating consequences for Raine and those she loves. And every hour that passes brings a deadly threat closer.

©2013 Donna Ball (P)2015 Donna Ball

Critic Reviews

"A simply fabulous mystery starring a likeable, dedicated heroine...." ( Midwest Book Review)

"A delightful protagonist.... [A] well-crafted mystery." ( Romantic Times)

Downward Trend Continues

Donna Ball's series of dog trainer Raine Stockton and her Golden Retriever Cisco continues it's downward slide. The dog story portion of the series still works pretty well; though it has become somewhat redundant and Raine's lack of understanding in situations where a listener can discern the dog's message with ease, a trainer's lack of understanding rings a loud, discordant bell. Despite this Cisco is still an excellent protagonist.
The portion of this series that has fallen the farthest for me is the part that deals with Raine's personal life and her relationship with Miles, her millionaire boyfriend/ lover. Given the man's looks, wealth, and position his continuing to put with the whiny, snappish woman who seems to always be in search of an excuse to start a fight and blame it on him feels unrealistic. It is also extremely irritating to listen to and causes one to wander why anyone with options would choose to deal with that sort of behavior.
If the next book doesn't reverse the trend I may be finished with this author.

Good, but brought up politics.

I listened to the whole series including reading the one that's not on audio. I love dog series, especially search and rescue and this one is pretty good, but there are a lot of things that bothered me in it. The main character is a dog trainer, but she is the worst dog trainer ever. It's like all of her dogs are out of control most of the time and she has no clue as to what they need. I'm surprised, but I somehow could get around that and enjoy this series and Raine is a likable person. One of my favorite characters is Sonny the dog psychic because she would tell Raine exactly what the dog needed which Raine should have known, but still it takes her a while to figure it out.

Very disappointing that I was well into the books when they start to get political. The bad guy extremists are called Patriots so I'm assuming the author is a liberal and trying to make conservatives look bad. :( I was hoping that would be contained to just that one story, but was brought up again in later books as an extra punch. It makes me sad that an otherwise pretty good story has to bring up politics. Why even go there and alienate half your audience? I enjoyed the narrator and the story, it's just apparent the author doesn't know much about dog training and then again, the politics.

One of the best so far.

This entire series has been fun and exciting. Not too much suspense to make my heart race, but enough to keep me wanting to listen ‘just a little longer’ every time I shouldn’t. The characters are believable and I get drawn into their lives even when the story isn’t really focusing on them. I can’t wait to start the next one.

My favorite book series

I love all of Donna Ball’s books, and this is the second time I am listening to this series.

To the dogs

I love this series. Good believable characters and interesting plots. I am carefully working my way through them all!

recommended

kept coming back to finish her story. Good read, love the dog character and role
.

Racine Stockton

where's book 3 gun shy by Donna Ball
Racine Stockton dog mystery book3
For audble

Enjoyed this mystery & setting at an agility trial

this was an exciting mystery with excellent character development. there were unexpected developments in the story, & I enjoyed the timeline approach to this book very much. It added to the suspense and kept me listening. I also enjoyed the author's description of dog behavior as I have in all of her books. I would highly recommend this mystery to all dog lovers out there. I also enjoyed the audio performance.

Fun story

enjoyable story with dog agility trial back drop. I would call it "light reading" except it was an audio book!

Love this series!

I have been hooked on the Raine Stockton series since book one, and I'm sad that it's almost over.