Excellent read, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this title in exchange for my feedback.

Dr Peter Bannerman, veterinarian and amateur detective, is planning a holiday at the Dragonfly Lodge in northern Manitoba. But, just days before, he receives an urgent call from the Lodge. Their champion sled dogs have suddenly become very ill. Peter has flown up alone in response and quickly realizes they have been poisoned. While there, he hears of another recent deadly mishap. A plane has crashed not far from the Lodge, killing everyone on board. Later, it is discovered the pilot was shot.

For once, however, Peter puts his love of sleuthing aside, determined to have a normal quiet vacation and returns to the Lodge with his wife, His RCMP brother-in-law, Kevin, Kevin's significant other, Stuart, and Peter’s prize winning sniffer dog, Pippin. But things don’t go quite as planned and, soon, they find themselves in an even worse danger than a simple poisoning or homicide.

Eleven Huskies is the third novel in A Dr Bannerman Vet Mystery series by Philip Schott, Canadian author and veterinarian and this has fast become one of my favourite series. I love the main characters all of whom are well-drawn. I also enjoy how the stories open with the thoughts of one of the animals referred to in the title and that, often an animal, in this case Pippin, becomes the real hero.

The books are listed as cozy mysteries and there are certainly elements of that including the main protagonist as amateur sleuth. But there is also elements of a thriller in the amount of action and violence. And, in the case of this story, there is even a touch of the adventure story as they are confronted by a fast-moving and out-of-control wildfire.

Throughout, there are plenty of twists and turns and tension to keep the reader flipping pages. All this, along with likeable characters and a satisfying ending, makes Eleven Huskies a very enjoyable read and I look forward to more Dr Bannerman mysteries in the future. I read an eARC of the book while listening to the audiobook narrated by Miles Meili who does an excellent job.

I received the eARC from Netgalley and ECW Press and the audiobook from ECW Press Audio

I really like this series and I love all the shenanigans that Dr. Bannerman & his BIL get up to, usually through no fault of their own! I can't wait for the next installment to come out!

#ElevenHuskies
#NetGalley

Eleven Huskies is the third Dr. Bannerman veterinary mystery by Dr. Philipp Schott. Released 14th May 2024 by ECW Press, it's 256 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a credible follow up to the first two books in the series, featuring an amateur sleuth who is also a veterinarian and somewhat neurodivergent (but high-functioning) protagonist alongside his trusty canine sidekick Pippin, a husky/lab/border collie mix with a gifted sense of smell and an unusually high degree of intelligence to go with it. Dr. Bannerman struck me as an odd guy, generally likeable but also stubborn and often pedantic. Readers who enjoy nerdy culture references with which the author liberally sprinkles around in the story will find a lot to enjoy here. Additionally, it's cool that Bannerman's wife is a nerdy fibre artist and knitting designer.

The book is well plotted and moves along at a good clip; definitely action driven and engaging. Unusually in this case, the characterizations are above average and believably rendered. There were a few places in the book where the dialogue didn't ring true at all, but all in all, well written and enjoyably readable. The overarching mystery is heavily foreshadowed and not a surprise, but there were motivations and hidden aspects which definitely are unexpected and twisty. The climax, denouement, and resolution had a bit too much deus-ex-machina to be entirely satisfying, but overall it's an enjoyable, readable semi-cozy mystery set in rural Canada.

It's not really a cozy mystery at all and shares more in common with modern medical thrillers than "James Herriot". The author is clearly familiar with rural Manitoba and he does a great job describing the weather, the area, and the history of the place. There is some on-page violence as well as some mildly graphic descriptions of blood, shooting, poisoning (including animals) and *long* and harrowing descriptions of forest fires and danger of immolation. Language and dialogue are mostly PG rated shading toward the R-rated end of the spectrum. Also, there's explicit violence toward animals and very sensitive readers might want to check the discussion threads (spoiler: the dog doesn't die).

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 7 hours and 31 minutes and is capably narrated by series narrator Miles Meili. He has a rugged and rough-edged baritone which suits the dialogue very well. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording.

Four stars. Very enjoyable, looking forward to seeing what comes next for Peter, Laura, and Pippin (&co). The author/publisher have included a sneak peek at the fourth book in the series, Three Bengal Kittens at the back of the book.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

"Eleven Huskies" by Philipp Schott is a part of the Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery Series. It really isn't a cozy mystery as it gets pretty violent. It's a good thriller that's hard to put down, as the action is very exciting.

TW: pet abuse,
Trapped in a forest fire,
Gunshots

Dr. Bannerman is on the autism spectrum, and he's also brilliant. His dog, Pippin, is very well trained and a fun character to read about.

Characters - 4/5
Main characters are well described.. not so much the rest of the crew at the lodge.
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 4/5
Pacing - 5/5
Unputdownability - 5/5
Enjoyment - 4/5
Narration - 3/5 by Miles Mielli. I didn't care for his voice and voice used for Peter.
Cover - 3/5
Overall - 3.5/5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley, ECW Press Audio, and Philipp Schott for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

3.5⭐️

<i> Peter Bannerman, veterinarian and amateur detective, deserves a summer vacation. Peter and his family head to a remote fishing lodge in northern Manitoba for a canoeing trip with his champion sniffer dog, Pippin. But a series of incidents color their plans. The lodge’s sled team of huskies has been poisoned and, at the same time, a floatplane crashes into the lake, killing the pilot and both passengers. While Peter works to save the huskies, it is discovered that the plane crash wasn’t an accident. It was murder. It’s been a hot and dry summer, and one morning the Bannerman family wakes up to find a forest fire spreading quickly. They manage to dodge the conflagration, making it back to the lodge before it becomes cut off from the outside world. Peter soon figures out that the murderer, who probably also poisoned the huskies, must be among the other guests or staff trapped with them at the lodge. The power fails. The now-enormous fire draws nearer. Can Peter discover the culprit in time? </i>

This was a generally entertaining mystery. A nice quick read to pass the time. I do wish the huskies had been more present.

Miles Meili did a decent job narrating the audiobook.

Thank you Philipp Schott, ECW Press Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is now becoming a familiar series to me, with characters that I'm enjoying learning more and more about. Their habits and the quirks and amusing traits of Dr Bannerman make for enjoyable reading, and usually, some pretty unusual crimes.

Eleven Huskies is set away from Dr Bannerman's usual stomping ground, but that just gives him more opportunity to use his vast knowledge of many subjects, and his wiles to figure out whodunnit.

The audio was good and the different accents were well portrayed by the narrator.

Loved it!

I finished listening 🎧 to this book 📕 yesterday. I did enjoyed this one, it was a pretty quick listen. I also enjoyed the animals in it as well, I wish the huskies would have been more present in it. This is the only book from this series that I have read, so I’ll have to check out the other ones. I gave this book 4⭐️‘s.

This was my first encounter with the 'Vet Detective' and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I raced through this audio book as it was easy to listen to and sufficiently engaging to keep me wanting to know how it worked out. It did take me a short while to get used the narrator, but after that it was fine apart from the attempt at doing an Stuarts accent, which sounded more Scandinavian than African. It's not too taxing, just a nice mystery story, to pass the time. I liked the characters, especially the Bela-Russians, but the solution seemed a little too simple and unconvincing when it came. Never-the less, I will be back for more!

This was a surprisingly interesting murder mystery set in remote Canada. Although part of a series, I found it easy to read as a stand-alone novel and aside from one or two brief mentions of past mysteries, everything still made sense. The characters were well-developed and each had their own motives and backgrounds. The murder mystery itself was perfectly balanced with the "vet" side of things and the injured huskies, and I found this unique approach to the detective novel intriguing. The killer didn't become obvious until the last few chapters but everything happened quickly enough that the realisation didn't bore or annoy me. Definitely would recommend to animal lovers with a preference for murder mysteries!

This book was not that great.. The main plot point was not the dogs themselves like the title and description make it seem. I really liked the first chapter where it gave the dogs point of view but the rest was just not written well. I felt bored most of the time listening to this book. I really don't think the narrator was the best choice. He talks very slowly and attempted accents that really should not have been done at all. I did not realize until later that this book was the third in the series although I don't think I missed out on much as I understood what was going on. Unfortunately it just was not for me.

Dogs? Check. Cabin vibes? Check. Decent diversity on multiple fronts? Check.

This combination of attributes makes for a very appreciated, atypical mystery premise. A significant portion of the story is invested into describing the setting and inner mechanisms of the main character Peter Bannerman's mind. Therefore, the plot moves at a leisurely pace until halfway, when...let's just say (no spoilers), things start to get heated...

Despite the aforementioned good qualities of this book, I almost shelved it because of the narrator's unnatural tonality and inflections, which lends to a confusing listening experience. One of many examples include the end of sentences sounding like a question or incomplete thought.

This book also contains a writing weakness that becomes much more prominent in audiobooks: Flat dialogue written in the format of "he said" and "she said." For example...

"____," he said.
"____," she said.
"____," he said.

...and repeat. When the writer repeatedly uses the above structure and the vocabulary does not reach further than the word "said," then it creates a dull reading and listening experience.

⟡ ⟡ ⟡

Thank you to ECW Press Audio who provided this audiobook ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a flop for me. The narrator made it hard to fully engage in the story. The writing isn't awful. I did like the premise of how it was going to play out. It just missed the mark for me in the end.



Thank you to Netgalley for the ALC of the book.

I was feeling nostalgic about the beloved James Herriott books when I requested an early release of Eleven Huskies by Phillip Schott. This cozy mystery is the 3rd book in a series featuring Peter Bannerman, a neurodivergent Canadian vet and amateur detective. In this latest adventure, Peter is on vacation in northern Manitoba with his wife, Laura, beloved dog, Pippin, and brother-in-law, Kevin, who is a member of the Canadian Mounted Police. The lodge owner where they stay asks Peter to care for his team of huskies who may have been poisoned. There’s also a suspicious plane crash that could be related. Peter and his family work to solve the series of mysteries as a terrible forest fire breaks out.
It took me some time to get into this novel, but the action really picked up in the last 25%. There were a lot of ancillary characters to keep track of and the climax wrapped up a bit quickly for me. The narrator did a fine job voicing all of the characters, but may have benefited from additional actors to help with different accents. Consider if you enjoy quirky amateur detective stories. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for this advanced audiobook. All opinions are my own. Available 5/13/24

Eleven Huskies is the third book in the Dr Bannerman Vet Mystery series by Canadian veterinarian and author, Philipp Schott. The audio version is narrated by Miles Meili. Shortly before he is due to go there on a family canoeing trip, veterinarian and part-time sleuth, Dr Peter Bannerman is called to Dragonfly Lodge to examine some very unwell huskies.


When he arrives, he learns that a float-plane has gone down on the lake that morning, with the loss of three lives and, as he puzzles over what is ailing the dogs, the RCMP report that the pilot was shot, making this a triple murder. As he organises transport to New Selfoss for the sickest dogs, apparently poisoned, he wonders who might have wanted to harm John Reynolds’s prize-winning dogs, coming up with theories that range from credible to utterly outlandish as he uncharacteristically indulges in wild speculation with no basis in fact.


Before returning home, he observes the interplay between Lodge staff, notes a pre-dawn canoe crossing the lake, and is shot at when he visits an old friend at the Dragon Lake First Nation settlement. He can’t help wondering who might have been the target of the plane crash: aside from the pilot, there were a flashy entrepreneur and a local indigenous politician on board; and, not believing in coincidence, he wonders if the poisoning is somehow related.


A few days later, Peter arrives for his trip, this time accompanied by his wife, Laura, his RCMP brother-in-law, Kevin and Kevin’s partner, Stuart, and of course his champion scent dog Pippin. And while Kevin is on vacation, he and Peter can’t help discussing both of the so-far-unsolved mysteries, postulating that everyone at the Lodge, staff and guests, are potential suspects.

In this instalment, Schott subjects his characters to a terrifying ordeal when a natural disaster cuts short their canoeing trip, gives Laura’s seemingly bumbling brother a chance to shine, deprives Peter of a classic locked-room denouement, and has Pippin using his sensitive nose on three occasions, one of which saves the lives of four people.

Peter eventually figures out who the killer is: “This process was always mysterious to him. His mind would meander somewhere that was pleasant but felt irrelevant, and then it would leap across a void to an unseen path that had been running in parallel all along. He wished he understood it so he could harness it properly, but at least it existed at all.” Or does he?

As usual, the prologue is from the perspective of the creatures requiring Peter’s veterinary expertise, and there is a preview of the fourth book in the series, Three Bengal Kittens. This is an entertaining and very enjoyable cosy mystery series, and more of quirky Peter Bannerman, Pippin, and their support characters, is eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and ECW Press

An enjoyable romp through the wilderness with our intrepid vet. The Autism traits are well integrated and described, if a little stereotyped. The plot is easy to follow and the animals cute. What's not to love.

I did enjoy this story, but the blurb gives it all away! I personally really hate that. I think it would be enough to say : Whilst on holiday in a Manitoba lodge with his dog Pippin, veternarian Peter Bannerman has his asleuthing skills put to the test when the lodge's huskies are found to have been poisoned. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The lodge’s huskies are sick so Peter, the nearest vet, flies up from Manitoba to check them out. They’ve been poisoned, but why and by whom? At the same time, a seaplane carrying a couple of important people has crashed. Are the cases related? The RCMP are too busy to look into the dogs between the plane crash and the threatening wildfires. But those poor dogs! Pete and his wife, along with his brother-in-law and his partner, agree to look into the dog situation while on their upcoming canoe trip not too far from the lodge. Naturally they get embroiled in far more than they expected, and ultimately help solve both the mystery of the dogs and of the seaplane crash.

I enjoyed the setup of this mystery, the quirky, on-the-spectrum musings of Peter, and the Canadian wilderness setting. It was my first time reading this author and while I typically prefer to start a series from book one, I found this easy to follow and enjoyable.

My only negative response was to the audiobook narrator. He has a strangely flat delivery that made it difficult to stay engaged until I got used to it. I considered abandoning the book, but I’m glad I stuck it out. Finally, about halfway through I no longer noticed the delivery. In retrospect, I wondered if the intonation (or lack thereof) was purposefully related to Peter’s autism. In any case, I look forward to reading more in the series.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and to #NetGalley for the advance copy of the audiobook.

Eleven Huskies is a lighthearted mystery set in northern Manitoba. The story centers around veterinarian Dr. Peter Bannerman who is an odd duck, obsessed with logic and measurable facts. I did not listen to the prior two books in this series, but I do not feel like I missed anything as this was a stand alone story.

The story begins when Dr. Bannerman is asked to investigate an apparent poisoning of a sled dog team at a remote fishing lodge. At the same time as the poisoning, a plane crashes into the lake, killing the pilot and both passengers. Thrown into the mix, the vet goes on a planned family camping trip with his wife, police detective brother in law (and his spouse), and his dog Pippin. Almost immediately as they set up camp, an out of control wildfire is upon them, and they head back to the lodge, where more disaster strikes. Although all events appear unrelated, Peter and Pippin somehow connect the dots and help solve the mysteries of the murder, fire, and poisoning.

What I enjoyed about this book was the Canadian setting, the quirky veterinarian, and the dog. However, parts of the story seemed disjointed and the ending seemed really rushed. I also didn't care for the narrator who seemed a bit monotone. There was this raging wildfire and explosions at the lodge, yet no excitement was heard in the narrators voice. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cozy mysteries that feature smart lovable pets.

I started this book not realising it was book 3 in a series - that being said it can absolutely be read as a standalone. There was only one instance at about 30% that referenced a previous book (to my understanding).

This mystery story has a lot of elements. It begins with veterinarian - Dr Peter Bannerman being called out to a fishing lodge when the owner's 11 huskies suddenly come down unwell. Simultaneously, a plane crashes after being shot down - killing all on board.

With a fire, more poisonings and a mysterious figure on the lake, this story had me spinning trying to figure out 'whodunnit'.

I'm kind of obsessed with Laura. Especially at the end where she insisted on joining in with the fun! Pippin melted my heart, and I was often on tenterhooks rooting for his wellbeing (especially that fire scene!). The narrator did take a bit of getting used to - but now knowing Peter, I feel as though the narrator was perfect to tell this story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for a free Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.