Brenda H. (booksinvt) - , reviewed on 7/5/2019 + 465 more book reviews

Belinda Blake and the Snake in the Grass is the debut of the Exotic Pet-Sitter series set in Greenwich, CT and featuring video game reviewer and exotic pet sitter, Belinda Blake. Having left Manhattan for a cozy carriage house on the grounds of the Carrington mansion in Greenwich, Belinda finds herself pet sitting Rasputin, a massive ball python whose owner is insistent that he be given regular baths and taken for walks. It's during one of their walks with Belinda dealing with the slithery snake wrapping himself around her neck that she stumbles into Stone Carrington the fifth, the heir to the family fortune. It's quickly apparent that Stone isn't going to be able to extricate Belinda from the snake's grasp and in fact they both are in danger of being bitten - fortunately the groundskeeper, Jacques steps up and uses his childhood experience handling snakes to rescue the pair.

Deciding that she needs to relax after her near fatal walk, Belinda sets out to weed her flower beds only to discover a stylish Louboutin in the boxwood hedge, unfortunately it's still attached to a woman's body. Margo Fenton was a family friend and rumored to be Stone's girlfriend, and now after a night of billiards she'd somehow ended up strangled in the bushes.

Even though she didn't know Margo, Belinda finds herself drawn into the hunt for her killer. Detective Hugh Watson has named several suspects include Stone, the alcoholic Stone the fourth, the various Carrington employees and Stone's eccentric artist friend, Dietrich Myers who had a somewhat creepy obsession with the young woman.

A fast paced plot that takes the reader from Greenwich to Manhattan and to Belinda's family home in upstate New York. If you are like me, a very vocal snake hater, Belinda's interactions with Rasputin might make you a little squeamish, but the snake's role in capturing the killer left me cheering for him (just a little). I'll be looking forward to the next installment in the series with fingers crossed that Belinda's next charge won't be slimy or slithery and that the author doesn't pursue the dreaded love triangle that she seems to be staging.

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