"Charming... another top-notch series by Leslie O'Kane."
—Writers Write
Allie Babcock Series
 1 |
 2 |
 3 |
 4 |
 (story) |
 5 |
 6 |
 7 |
Bad news turned into good news for me regarding the Allie Babcock series. The editor of my first two books left the publishing industry, so I decided I would like to change publishers. My agent at the time advised me to start a new series, and asked if I had any ideas for another main character. I told her that, just that morning, I'd read an article in my local paper about a daycare center for dogs that sometimes recommends doggie downers for separation anxiety. Ten days later, my agent called me and said that she hadn't had any luck yet moving my series, but she'd already had six editors who wanted to read my new proposal. She then asked how much of it I'd written, and I said, "You've heard my every word: 'Dog therapist in Boulder, Colorado.'" She told me to drop whatever else I was doing and send her a first chapter and a synopsis.
Needing to act fast, I decided that, instead of inventing a new main character from scratch, I would project what my dog-loving daughter might be like as an adult. A writer friend happened to call that morning, and she told me that she'd gone to a radio station to be interviewed about her books, only to learn that the radio station had only just then discovered that that they were shutting down. Instead of an author Q&A, the switchboards were swarmed with callers bemoaning the fact that they were going off the air. The combination of those two inspirations led to Play Dead, the first book in the Allie Babcock series.
Ruff Way to Go also sprang from a newspaper article, this time about a messy divorce with the parties unable to decide who should get custody of their Yorkshire terrier. Give the Dog a Bone was inspired by a snippet of conversation I overheard while waiting to be seated at a restaurant. A woman in the lobby was telling her friend that she'd ended a blind date after he'd revealed that his second wife had been channeling his first wife. The idea for Woof at the Door came from a radio interview with a wild-animal rescuer. He was kind enough to meet with me and answer hundreds of questions. My next Allie book will be about a murder at the Westminster Dog Show, which I adore watching. I'll probably assign a clever codename to avoid ruffling any feathers (or fur), such as the Eastminster Dog Show.
Terrier Terror
Book 7What can possibly go wrong at the annual dog show?
Allie Babcock and her life partner, Baxter McClelland, get more than they bargained for when they accept jobs at the Fort Collins, Colorado, annual dog show. Allie is training dogs in the agility competition. Her dear friend, Tracy Truitt, enrolls her stubborn, untrained Beagle in the competition and recruits Allie as his handler. Baxter is hired as a last-minute replacement to manage the Terrier group after a catastrophic event at last-year's show results in open hostilities among the presenters and owners. Before the flying fur can settle, a dog handler is murdered, and Allie and Baxter's livelihoods and reputations are in deep jeopardy...
BUY THE eBOOK:
Dog Drama
Book 6Welcome to Creede, a lovely little western town in the Colorado Rockies. This year's renowned theater production stars an Australian Shepherd with stage fright, two backstage love triangles, a shifty stagehand...and a real-life murder.
Dog therapist Allie Babcock has grasped the brass ring of work assignments—stunning scenery, the love of her life at her side, and stage-training a brilliant Australian Shepherd and an adorable Pug. The dogs are starring in a romantic comedy, "Good Dog, Blue!" written and directed by a friend of Allie's boyfriend. Within an hour of Allie's arrival, however, a heavy light fixture crashes onto the stage, nearly hitting the Shepherd. Before night has fallen on this not-so-sleepy town, a cast member is poisoned, and an anonymous note warns that Allie might be next. To leave puts a dog in jeopardy. To stay puts everything Allie holds dear at risk. Can she thwart a determined killer before the final curtain?
BUY THE eBOOK:
Of Birds and Beagles
Book 5Dog therapist Allie Babcock is excited to give a presentation at the Pets! Pets! Pets! Expo in Denver. With the bring-your-own-pets policy of the expo, Allie's dog-phobic boyfriend is hyperventilating as soon as they enter the building. When he runs into his gorgeous-but-crazy ex-girlfriend and her parrot, Magoo, sparks are flying in all the wrong directions. Before Allie can take the stage, Magoo nips the ear of an adorable dog—Beagle Bailey—who belongs to Allie's friend Tracy, a local radio-talk-show celebrity. Havoc reigns, and Tracy drags the dog-friendly community of Boulder into the fray by broadcasting her version of the bird-versus-beagle altercation.
One thing leads to another until Allie is enmeshed in two love triangles, as well as one hate triangle. With her own love life in dire straits, Allie takes solace in playing cupid for her mother and Frank, a charming neighborhood volunteer fix-it man. Little does she know that Frank's work repairing the wires in an elderly client's home that squirrels have gnawed through will lead Allie to find a dead body...and Frank to be named as a suspect.
BUY THE eBOOK:
A Dog-Gone Christmas
Short StoryIn this fun, engaging holiday short story, dog therapist Allie Babcock and her mother face a tedious delay at Denver International Airport on Christmas Eve. Then, moments later, Delia Granger, a platinum-selling and temperamental country-western singer, arrives at the terminal, panic-stricken as she realizes that her dog carrier has been replaced with a duplicate, and that Amelia's darling long-haired Chihuahua, Bella, is now missing. It is up to Allie to save this dog-gone Christmas!
BUY THE eBOOK:
Woof at the Door
Book 4Dog therapist Allie Babcock has the best of intentions: to help an old friend and her sweet little beagle deal with a neighbor's untrained dog. Unfortunately, Allie discovers that her friends' neighbors fight like cats and dogs. One neighbor is living decades behind the times. He's a self-proclaimed hippie who sells memorabilia from the '60s and wants his dog to do his own thing, which, if Allie's training methods fall short, could lead to the dog being put down. To Allie's intense dismay, another neighbor wants to breed his Samoyed with a wolf for profit. The would-be breeder is so incompetent that Allie has to break the news that the Samoyed is already expecting puppies—any day now. A third neighbor no longer has a dog, yet seems determined to bark at Allie whenever their paths cross.
All too soon, the contentious neighborhood erupts into unexpected violence. Allie finds herself on the receiving end of a nick-of-time rescue by Damian Hesk, a wildly handsome man who operates a wild-animal rescue shelter on his ranch east of Boulder. Allie's heart is torn between two men. She is unsure which way to turn as she becomes deeply embroiled in a life-or-death struggle that will take no prisoners.
BUY THE eBOOK:
Give the Dog a Bone
Book 3No mere murder is going to make dog therapist Allie Babcock roll over and play dead. As canine shrink Allie Babcock knows, behind every neurotic dog stands a neurotic human. But the rambunctious golden retriever named Maggie can't even begin to compete with the nuttiness of her owner. Befuddled millionaire Ken Culberson insists that he killed his wife and that Maggie is channeling her spirit. He talks Allie into becoming the dog's legal guardian in case he, too, should die, which he promptly does, thanks to a murderer.
Friends and relatives immediately gather to sniff after the fortune that will go to whomever Allie picks to be Maggie's new owner. Wondering who in the pack did the deed, sleuthhound Allie vows that Maggie and her millions will only go to a killer over her own dead body...
BUY THE eBOOK:
Ruff Way to Go
Book 2Dog Therapist Allie Babcock is back—and she has a bone to pick with a killer!
Allie's dog therapy practice in Boulder, Colorado is thriving. Her divorcing neighbors, Edith and Trevor, hire Allie to decide which one gets custody of Shogun, their silky terrier. And another neighborhood pair, Cassandra and Paul, need help with a fostered Siberian husky and her puppies.
Life seems to be ambling along quite nicely for Allie...until she finds Cassandra's bloodied body sprawled on Edith's deck with a bloody pawprint next to it—and the silky terrier, Shogun, nowhere to be found.
Who murdered Cassandra? Where's Shogun? What makes the old couple down the block so hostile? Hounded by the police and in the doghouse with just about everybody else, sleuthhound Allie cuts to the chase—and unleashes a close encounter with a cold-hearted killer.
BUY THE eBOOK:
Play Dead
Book 1Meet Allie Babcock—an intrepid dog therapist with a knack for sleuthing!
After Allie Babcock sets up shop in Boulder, her first client is a despondent collie whose previous owner apparently took her own life. But Allie soon suspects murder—and figures her canine client was a witness to the crime.
Bizarre salesman, vicious boyfriend, and several suspicious dog owners—one thing is for sure—Allie's life may never be safe until one of these characters lands in the pen...
BUY THE eBOOK:
