Book excerpt: A second collection of Books 5 to 7 starring service dog trainer, Marcia Banks and her four-legged best friend and mentor dog, Buddy—including a Halloween romp with a seriously scary twist and a visit to a tropical island that turns deadly. In Patches In The Rye, service dog trainer Marcia goes a bit off the rails for a while, as she’s tempted to try her hand at being a private detective. Nothing about her new client is what she expected—from the posh house that says family money to his paranoid preoccupation with his sister’s love life—but when he dangles a fat retainer check under her nose, she can’t resist. The deeper she digs, however, the more questions arise. The most pressing one being…who’s driving the black SUV that keeps trying to turn Marcia and Buddy into roadkill? In The Legend of Sleepy Mayfair, Marcia’s adopted town is once again driving her a little nuts. No sooner has she moved her horse into the new Mayfair Riding Stable than its eccentric owner, Edna Mayfair decides to turn the barn into a haunted house for Halloween. Meanwhile, an anonymous prankster is haunting Mayfair and the local postmistress has a strange request for Marcia. All this, along with her new role of godmother to her best friend’s adorable twins, is a bit overwhelming. But it’s nothing compared to what’s coming as Halloween approaches…. In The Sound and the Furry, a tropical paradise turns deadly. Marcia thinks it will be the perfect arrangement—stay on her client’s beautiful private island while conducting the human phase of the training. But a tranquil getaway this is not, thanks to two resident ghosts, a sour-puss housekeeper, and her client’s shaky marriage. Then Mother Nature ups the anté when a freak late-season hurricane traps her and her dogs on the island…with a killer. Each story is a complete mystery, but the characters are best understood and enjoyed if the stories are read in order.