Lauren Vancouver is the head honcho of HotRescues, a practically perfect no-kill animal shelter in the San Fernando Valley. The benefactor for the shelter is Dante DeFrancisco who runs a multimillion dollar empire catering to animals. Dante's latest product for HotPets is a line of faux jeweled dog collars and he is running an advertising blitz featuring them on Teacup breeds. The collars haven't been put on the market yet, but there is a run on small dog breeds at the rescue center due to the cuteness of the small dogs wearing the HOTPETS bling collar.

Lauren has been notified that a raid on a puppy mill in Missouri has rescued dozens of small puppies, and the shelters in that area aren't equipped to take care of them. Lauren contacts the director of the public shelter issuing the SOS, and offers to take as many puppies as they can send her. The pups will be ferried by Airborne Adoptions, a generous organization of shelter volunteers who transport animals in relay teams until the last point of the drop off -- in this instance Las Vegas. Tom and Naya Fayler, a HotRescue volunteer couple will pick up the adoptees in their private plane, and bring the puppies from there. When the Fayler's arrive to pick up their twelve puppies, Teresa Kantrim, a really unpleasant woman, insists on escorting the animals all the way to California. Teresa had hoped to start her own shelter with the puppy mill rescues, but didn't have the resources needed and is very bitter. She keeps making veiled remarks about the honesty of the "LaLa Land" personnel, and at a party given by Lauren at the HotRescue facilities to introduce the puppies to their new world, Teresa is murdered. Because of the hostile attitude Teresa displayed toward the Fayler's, Tom and Naya are the prime murder suspects. Lauren does not want to get involved in finding the killer, but we all know that she will.

Linda O. Johnston is such a wonderful author and an inspiring advocate of pet adoption. Every time this reviewer finishes one of Ms. Johnston's clever and delightful cozy mysteries, I want to go get me some more "fur babies". TEACUP TURBULANCE is an exceedingly fine mystery with some wicked good story lines. The beautiful adult relationships between the excellently drawn characters is a joy to read, and like all of Ms. Johnston's books can be read and appreciated by readers of all ages. This reviewer is awarding TEACUP TURBULANCE the prized blue ribbon and the enviable best of genre accolade.

Book Summary

Los Angeles animal shelter manager Lauren Vancouver has a soft spot for animals in need—and a keen eye for crime. . .

Thanks to a savvy ad campaign featuring teacup pups sporting HotPets Bling—a new line of faux jewelry dog collars—small dog adoptions have skyrocketed across the city. So when Lauren discovers a shelter in the Midwest with more toy dogs than it can handle, she arranges a private plane to swoop in and fly the pups back to LA.

But Lauren didn’t count on rescue worker Teresa Kantrim coming along for the ride. Teresa has cared for the dogs since they were found and doesn’t trust anyone from La-La Land to take over the job. Her biting comments clearly haven’t earned Teresa any new friends, but when she turns up murdered, it’s time for Lauren to dig into Teresa’s past and find out who wanted her put down.