[Three Oaks 06] • Sting in the Tail

Tail docking, practiced humanely, can give a dog an advantage in chasing pheasant through the underbrush at the well-heeled Three Oaks Kennel. But when a cheerful - if wandering - springer spaniel named Clarence returns home maliciously wounded, kennel proprietor and amateur sleuth John Cunningham smells trouble. Several neighborly squabbles and a poacher or two hanging about the well-stocked game preserve leave Cunningham with a brace of suspects at hand. But his instinct points to something darker - an overzealously militant animal-rights activist may be cruelly at work in the area. And with an important breeder's competition coming up and a party of wealthy American shooters on the way, bad publicity could bring disaster. To protect the four-legged denizens of his kennel - and the two-legged ones as well - Cunningham swings into action and sniffs out a trail of misdeeds even more menacing than he feared - a trail that leads to serious fraud and, ultimately, to a grisly murder.