title: Beaglemania (A Pet Rescue Mystery)
author:  Linda O. Johnston 
description: Animals play a passive role in Johnston's less than engaging first in a new series featuring Lauren Vancouver, who runs HotRescues, a private no-kill animal shelter in Granada Hills, Calif. After raiding a puppy mill, Lauren is certain that Efram Kiley, an animal care apprentice who'd abused his own dog and was working for her as part of a legal agreement, tossed beagle puppies down a drainpipe. When Efram is later found stabbed to death at Lauren's shelter, she briefly becomes a suspect, but she quickly transitions into a skillful investigator helping skeptical LAPD Det. Stefan Garciana and love interest Capt. Matt Kingston of Animal Services. Insights into the plight of homeless animals make this an informative, if sometimes too fervent, spinoff from the author's Pet-Sitter series featuring lawyer Kendra Ballantyne (Feline Fatale, etc.). (Mar.) <BR>(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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  **EYEWITNESS TO MURDER**
  
  I was still smiling when I pulled up my laptop and navigated to Pet Haven’s
  website. I could hear the storm getting louder, and the Internet site that had
  been clear earlier in the day was staticky and slower tonight. I finally
  caught a glimpse of Aggie. She had moved from the bearskinned rug to the cot,
  which was littered with stuffed animals. I was just about to turn off the
  screen when it flickered and then jumped to a view of one of the other
  cameras. I clicked around the menu on several links, which switched from one
  room to another in search of the link that would take me back to Aggie. Just
  about to give up, I clicked on a link that showed a woman spraying down the
  outside area of the kennels. It appeared to be raining there, too, but, the
  kennel area was covered. I squinted to make out who the woman was. It looked
  like the owner, Keri Lynn Simpson. She wore a yellow rain slicker and boots. I
  was glad to see Pet Haven was tr