3.5 The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan is the first in the Jazz Ramsey mystery series. Murder, loss, friendships and an old romance keep cadaver dog-trainer Jazz Ramsey busy in this murder-mystery.

The story could be described as a cozy, but felt more inline with the Mercy Kilpatrick series by Kendra Elliot. While that series has a bit more romance, this series has the potential to develop more as it progresses.

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Enjoyed Jazz Ramsey, a school administrator by day and cadaver dog trainer in her spare time. She has a strong network of friends. When she and Luther(training cadaver dog) find a body it becomes even more complicated when she realizes she knows the individual and the lead detective is a former lover. The dialogue of the teenagers she works with is realistic. Loved that she didn't automatically fall back in to the arms of the ex boyfriend. I will read more by this author.

I love mysteries and books with dogs and this has both .
This was just a good easy read that I enjoyed.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

A very interesting beginning to a new series by Ms. Logan. Jasmine (Jazz) Ramsey works as an administrative assistant at a prestigious high school, but in her spare time she trains human-remains-detection dogs (HRD). While on a training session, in a building that was soon to be demolished, the dog is supposed to find the evidence that Jazz planted…not the body of a young woman. Jazz recognizes the young woman, Florie, who was a former student at the school. What was she doing in the abandoned building? Jazz has an uncomfortable history with the detective that arrives on scene, Nick Kolesov, a former lover who she has not seen in a year. Will he consider her a suspect in the case? Why was Florie dressed as a “goth” and who could have wanted her dead? Jazz will do some investigating on her own, little by little digging in to Florie’s recent past for clues. She knows she should stay out of the case, but she needs to find out what happened. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

Once again, all it took was for me to see a cover with a dog on it to request an advance copy. I love dogs and I love mysteries with dogs, especially working dogs. Here, Jazz helps train cadaver dogs. While training Luther, they stumble across the body of a girl who graduated from the Catholic Girls school where Jazz works as an administrator to the Headmistress. And it just so happens the detective investigating the murder is her ex-beau.

The book is told in a straightforward manner. This isn’t a deep or thought provoking book. The parts about training cadaver dogs are interesting. But really, the book doesn’t concentrate on the dog much at all. At one point, she is asked to pet sit Luther and yet he’s barely mentioned. I just expected the dog to be a bigger part of the equation.

I didn’t find this particularly realistic. Jazz goes off on her own investigation, supposedly because she’s so bothered by finding the body of someone she knew (slightly). And I had trouble believing everyone would be so open with her.

The characters weren’t particularly well defined, even Jazz. Neither Jazz or Nick could determine the murderer, but the answer was apparent to me fairly early on. This isn’t a bad mystery. It’s just not a particularly good one.

My thanks to netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

I received an arc copy of this book from NetGalley and St Martins Press for my honest review. Jazz is a school secretary/ office assistant that trains search and rescue dogs ( to find dead people). The book starts on a training session with a friends dog but she finds an actual dead body. Along comes Nick the detective on the scene who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. The bad luck keeps coming when she tells Nick she actually knows the victim, a young woman who used to go to her school. Touched by the senseless death Jazz inserts herself in the search for answers even though she has no formal training, and what was more surprising was how many people answered her questions. There is a lot ( a whole lot) of detail about the location which was at times distracting. There’s also lots of twists and turns in this book, sometimes even spooky ones, given the characters which is nice and the bigger mystery of her dad’s death makes me want to read more. I just wish there was more about the dog given the blurb about the book and a little more reality ( no real suspect would talk that much to s “regular “ person). 4 stars

Whilst this was a well written and researched story, I have to admit I was a bit confused at just why jazz got involved!

Jazz had a tenuous link to the victim from working at her school and finding the body but she didn't work for the police or have any investigation history, so I was a bit lost as to why she decided to shoehorn herself into the investigation.

She does seem to cover a lot of the same ground as Nick, as we find out after the fact. If she just asked him he could have told her what she went to great lengths to find out. Although why he would want to is another mystery. The relationship between Nick and Jazz was also quite vague. They appear to have broken up as a joint decision but when we first meet Jazz, you assume he must have cheated on her or something because of all the vague comments she makes. They both lacked in the effort department that it takes to make a relationship work.

But other than that I did enjoy the story. I would have preferred the cadaver dogs to be more involved in the story, they really only seemed to be a plot device to insert Jazz into the story.

The mystery was not very compelling and the romance was a non event without chemistry. No depth to the characters. Finished, but didn’t really care about anyone in the story and the dog was a prop that added next to nothing to the plot line.

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

As a northeast Ohioan, I really enjoyed reading a book set in Cleveland, with references to some of my favorite places in the city. As for the story itself, I'm hoping future books in the series go into greater detail regarding the cadaver dog plot line, as it didn't play as big a role as I'd expected. I did like the protagonist, Jazz, and look forward to another story about her. I wish there had been a little more challenge to deducing the guilty party, because it was too easy to determine, in my opinion. Overall, an enjoyable introduction to a new series that I look forward to returning to.

From the blurb provided, I thought this sounding intriguing.
Unfortunately this book did not meet my expectations.

I'm sorry but I did not enjoy this book at all.

Characters are flat and underdeveloped and the dog is just appearing for a few chapters even though he's mentioned as one of the characters in the synopsis.

The main character, Jazz, is annoying and childish.

I liked this story. When Jazz is training her cadaver-finding dog and finds the body of a former student from her school, she begins to investigate. It did not really make sense to me that a school admin would take so much time to investigate a murder of one of the schools former students. There was little warmth in the characters so I did not really like them all that much and their relationships with each other seemed rather clinical. The writer took a stab at teaching people not to judge a person by their appearance, seemed to stress the merits of vegetarianism and pointed out the problems associated with hoarding. It was not preachy but was noticeable to me. Jazz’s failed relationship with Nick was never really explained and I didn’t care whether they got back together or not. Jazz was pretty hostile towards him and his persistence was inexplicable. All that being said, this was a pretty good investigative story albeit very slow paced. I enjoyed it but it did seem to plod along at times. I would have found it more believable if Jazz had been a reporter and not a school administrator. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I didn't finish this, although I read almost half of it. I didn't find it at all engaging. The only characters I liked were the four legged ones. I loved the cover though! Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this title. I hope you'll allow me the opportunity again in the future.

I was really on the fence with this book. The writing itself was very good, and the story and dialogue flowed well.

I was pretty disappointed that Luther wasn’t in the book more. Based on the synopsis, I thought the book would involve the cadaver dog throughout the entirety of the story, but he made very few appearances. Character wise, there really wasn’t one that I liked. I found Jazz bothersome especially since she was so involved in the finding out details leading up to Florie’s death. Yes, she trained cadaver dogs and she was the one to find Florie’s body, but she wasn’t a cop or a detective; she was an administrative assistant at a private school. Now, I understand that Florie was a former student of the school where Jazz worked, but it still seemed odd for her to want to go to such lengths to find answers.

Nick, her ex-boyfriend, that she was slowly becoming reacquainted with, was the one working the case, and I was surprised he wasn’t more upset about her going out and questioning those who knew Florie. Every time she would come to him with something new, he pretty much already knew the details. But in reality, he shouldn’t have been discussing anything with her since it was still an ongoing investigation.

I didn’t see the end coming though. When the truth was finally revealed, I was glad I hadn’t figured it out. So I did enjoy that part of the book. But then as the story came to a close, Nick surprised Jazz with a gift, and I thought she would seem a bit more elated and grateful, but even that happy moment fizzled out. She seemed so blasé about it. And to be honest, I wasn’t really feeling any chemistry between Jazz and Nick, so I didn’t find myself rooting for them to be together.

Overall, I thought the idea of the book was great, but I really would have liked Luther to be in the book more, especially since that was what drew me in in the first place.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2746429822

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

I had similar thoughts on this book as many other reviews I have seen on it. I wanted to like it, but it fell short of my expectations. I've read several stories recently about search and rescue dogs and police dogs, and was hoping for something more along those lines. Story was kind of flimsy.

I was so excited about this book!! I have read this author under a different name and loved them all. The premise of this book sounded great but the actual story just fell short of my expectations. It’s a nice amateur mystery but there was nothing in this book to make it stand out as great.

The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan is the first book in a new mystery series by Ms. Logan. The synopsis of the story led me to believe that this book would be about cadaver dogs and their training but this was only a small piece of the story.

I found myself unable to connect with Jazz throughout the story. She totally confused me as to why she investigated the girl's death. Her ex-boyfriend, Nick, was the detective on the murder and seemed to be handling the case quite well. I also didn't understand her on-again, off-again attitude toward Nick throughout the book. The break up seemed have been consensual since they both "couldn't find the time" to be together. The plot moved smoothly and the clues provided made it clear to the identity of the murderer. Ms. Logan's descriptive writing did paint a clear picture of Cleveland and it's many cultural neighborhoods. All in all it was an interesting read and I give it 3.5 stars.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from Minotaur Books via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.

This book immediately grabbed my attention, quickly becoming a page turner. The writing style and tone was evenly matched with the pacing making it easy to follow along with what was happening on the pages. I like how this drama was told with a well-defined mystery giving me the right amount of tension to keep me intrigued. Despite the small pool of suspects, there was plenty of clues left to be discovered and I had an idea of who the killer was and it was fun watching it all play out. There was a point when the author changed direction, but I held onto my belief in the killer’s identity.

The narrative was visually descriptive, keeping me engaged in all aspects from the scenery to the interactions between Jazz and those that crossed her path and to the dialogue that kept me abreast of what was going on. As the story advanced, the author provided a backstory that illustrated how the main characters came to be, which sets the stage for the pivotal roles they had in the telling of this tale. A terrific start and I look forward to the next book in this new series.

A pretty good start for a new series. The mystery is compelling. The characters are developing but interesting. My only issue with this book is the blurb is very misleading. I expected the fact that Jazzy is a dog handler and the cadaver plus search and rescue dogs would be more integral to the story. I expected something more like Alex Kava's Ryder Creed series and was excited for it. Hopefully these aspects will be more important in future books.

Jazz Ramsey takes a cadaver-dog-in-training out for a practice session in an empty building, and the dog obligingly finds a real corpse. Jazz recognizes the victim as a student at the school where she works and, jarred by having found the body, resolves to get to the bottom of the crime. While she's at it, she discovers that the detective on the case is none other than her old flame, and there are hints of a possible reconciliation. I'm no fan of those mysteries narrated by--or solved by--dogs, but I found myself wishing that the author had done more here with the dog-training angle. Basically the dog finds the body in the first scene and exits stage left, having no particular importance for the rest of the book. Not only is this a missed opportunity for the author to immerse us further in the unfamiliar, fascinating world of working dogs and their trainers, but Jazz could have somehow used the dog as a teammate to help investigate the crime. Her special expertise as a dog handler--something the police detective on the case could not supply--would have been a much more believable reason for Jazz to investigate this crime in the first place. As it is, she tootles along trying to solve the same crime being actively investigated by competent professional detectives when there is no urgency for her specifically to do so. The action is not compelling or suspenseful enough, and even in the romantic element there is more talk of scheduling conflicts than of any particular chemistry between the old flames. If you're going to give your amateur sleuth a quirky profession useful to law enforcement, then it's much more entertaining to let her use those special skills to solve the crime.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the digital review copy of this book.