Thanks to NetGalley & publisher Minotaur Books | St. Martin's Press for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

This was a page-turner that kept me on the edge of the couch, the dining room chair, the bed - I read it every chance I got. An exceptional cozy murder mystery, the premise was intriguing and the plot was well thought-out. A dead body is discovered in a little used closet on the 4th floor at St. Catherine's girls' school during a demonstration by a cadaver dog. Administrative Assistant Jazz Ramsey recognizes the skeleton as a former teacher who had resigned three years ago. Of course she also realizes the woman was murdered - and Jazz is compelled to help the police solve the crime. Lots of clues, a few possible suspects, plus danger afoot when Jazz gets too close to discovering the secret. This book was several steps above the typical mystery with believable characters, just the right amount of description, good backstory, and a credible outcome. (No spoilers!) And no need to worry if you haven't read book #1 (neither had I) but I'll be looking for "The Scent of Murder" because I can't wait to spend more time with Jazz and author Kylie Logan. ( )

The first book in this series, The Scent of Murder, showed a lot of promise, and this second entry certainly begins fulfilling a lot of that. Jazz has learned a better way to question her suspects (in the first book she tended to infuriate everyone which is dangerous), and her relationship with a local detective aids in her investigation. There's the usual cop who poo-poos everything she says, but he's not obnoxious to the point where I wanted someone to run him down with a patrol car. (I take out any latent aggression in the fiction I read.)

Logan has a main character with a voice that captures my attention and won't let it go. In The Secrets of Bones, she's also crafted an excellent mystery that kept me guessing all the way to the reveal. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book, although this author stomps all over one of my pet peeves.

Cozy mysteries usually have some sort of "hook" to capture a reader's attention and make them pick up and read the book. When Logan once again fell hook, line, and sinker for one of my peeves, I had to look up two things. One was my reading history with this author. She's written several series, and I've read books in two of her others. One button shop series I picked up because I love buttons. Yes, there was some information about buttons at the beginning of the book, but if they showed up again it was because someone threw all the buttons on the floor and the main character had to pick them up. Buttons were the hook that was quickly dropped after the beginning of the book.

The second thing I had to look up was more information about the literary or narrative hook: "It appears at the beginning of the story and may contain several pages of a novel, several paragraphs of a short story, or it might be only an opening sentence..." So I learned that my expectations were rather high, and Logan is following the letter of the literary hook law. But... my expectations are still high. If this series is supposed to be about a woman who trains cadaver dogs, may we please have more than a couple of pages about the process? Pretty please?

Will I read the next book in the series? I've already said yes because I do like the main character and the mystery was excellent. I just wish I could train myself not to be so annoyed when hooks don't last as long as I want them to! ( )

Jazz Ramsey is a school secretary at an exclusive Catholic girls's school in Cleveland. Her hobby is training cadaver dogs. Since she is currently training a new puppy named Wally, she borrows a retired cadaver dog from a friend when she is suddenly brought in as a substitute for a no-show at the school's career day. They go up to the unused fourth floor of the school for their demonstration when the dog finds something Jazz had not previously hidden.

Gus finds bones in a closet that housed the old heating system. Clothing on the body seems to indicate that the victim was a former teacher who had problems with students and other faculty and who was in danger of being fired. Most of the staff was relieved when a resignation letter arrived at the end of Christmas Break three years earlier.

Now Jazz is determined to find out who killed Bernadette Quinn. She doesn't want to suspect her boss Sister Eileen but Eileen did argue with Bernadette before Christmas Break and who was worried about Quinn suing the school. Of course, the killers could have been three students who delighted in tormenting the very religious teacher. Or maybe the parent of the girl Quinn discovered plagiarizing her college admittance letter. Or maybe the mysterious man the cleaning lady saw around the school. Or maybe the cousin who seems to have taken over her life and home.

I liked that Jazz was persistent and curious. I liked that she was working on her relationship with police officer Nick after a break up because they were moving too fast and were having trouble working around their demanding jobs and hobbies. I liked her relationship with her new puppy Wally and the information about search and rescue dogs and cadaver dogs.

The story was fast-paced and exciting. ( )

I absolutely adored the first book in Kylie Logan's new series. Naturally, when I saw the sequel offered on Netgalley, I jumped to request it. I wasn't disappointed. Here's a few reasons why.

Even though the book deals with murder and other unpleasant subjects, this isn't a "crime novel." The tone is warm-hearted. Think Alexander McCall-Smith-type warmth, and you'll get a sense of what I felt as I read.

After reading several harrowing crime novels with gruesome killings and depraved killers, it was nice to read something more gentle. The mystery genre isn't all darkness and horror. Sometimes it has cute puppies, too.

But make no mistake: this is definitely a murder mystery. Logan deftly balances the warmth with realism. Murder is murder. No one particularly liked Bernadette Quinn, but that doesn't mean they don't mourn for her or don't want the killer caught. Her death disturbs and saddens even Jazz's boss, the formidable Sister Eileen. And rightfully so: someone murdered a woman and hid her body in an infrequently used part of the school she runs.

Jazz's investigation is realistic. She's not a police officer, so when she starts asking questions, she receives a lot of push-back. Not everyone is forthcoming. Not every line of questioning yields readily apparent answers. She's nosing around, much like the cadaver dogs she trains, and not everyone likes that--including her old/new boyfriend Nick the homicide investigator.

The plot unfolds slowly. There are plenty to keep your attention, though: lots of twists and red herrings!

Logan is excellent at describing human relationships. The all-girls school environment of St. Catherine's feels real to me. The all-female setting has its perks but there are a lot of the rivalries, alliances, and minor melodramas inherent to teenage society.

It's refreshing to see a strong and compassionate female in charge, though. Sister Eileen is a gem. Sarah, Jazz's BFF and the art teacher at St. Catherine's, is simultaneously adorable, supportive, and vulnerable. Yet neither of them, nor any of the students, can be discounted as possible suspects.

Kylie Logan doesn't include a lot of backstory. But there's enough to remind us that Jazz's father, a firefighter, died in a mysterious arson blaze in recent years; that Jazz has cautiously reunited with her old lover Nick; and various other tidbits about Jazz's friends and family.

For once, this is a loving, supportive family! But even functional families have squabbles and Logan makes these minor characters interesting without letting them take over the story. Jazz's emotions at seeing her mother begin to date again feel realistic. She's watching another man--a lovely, attentive man--taking her late father's place. Even though the new boyfriend may not be trying to "take" the place of another man, it's still a struggle to be happy for her mother.

Nick and Jazz have reunited. They're tiptoeing forward in their relationship, painfully aware of the things that drove them apart and resolving to avoid them. Each time they're together, there's tension coupled with desire. But they obviously care deeply for each other in ways that go beyond sexual desire.

Apart from the early chapters, there isn't as much about cadaver dog training as one might expect. This is a bit disappointing, but the dogs do play key roles at several moments in the book. Logan is obviously an animal lover, though. It shows through her descriptions of dog behavior and reactions. She describes an Airedales' walk as a combination of "runway strut and goofy clowning around." That's a line that only an observant dog-lover could have written.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves mysteries and dogs! 4 1/2 stars rounded up to 5.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's/Minotaur press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )