Laurien Berenson Books In Order

Publication Order of Melanie Travis Books

Publication Order of Peg and Rose Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Laurien Berenson is a noteworthy author who likes to write her novels based on the murder mystery, young adult and romance genres. She is basically an American novelist and is well known for writing down the very famous Melanie Travis Mysteries. Berenson started her writing career in the year 1983 and since then she has written a number of successful novels in her career. In the earlier days of her career, Berenson used to write her novels under the pseudonym Laurien Blair. Berenson has become particularly famous for her Melanie Travis Mysteries series, which has been published in a several foreign languages. Apart from the Melanie Travis series, Berenson has also written a number of standalone novels. After a few initial novels, she gave up her pseudonym and began writing stand-alone novels under her original name. Laurien Berenson has received a number of prestigious awards in her literary career as well as she has also been nominated for several other prestigious awards. She has won the Maxwell Award for 4 times in her career. The Maxwell Awards have been presented to her by the Dog Writers Association, a writers’ association in America. Berenson is also the winner of the Choice Award by the Romantic Times Reviewers’. Apart from these, she has also been nominated for the Agatha and Macavity awards for several times in her career.

Berenson lives happily in Kentucky along with her husband and a few dogs and horses. The Melanie Travis series is a series of murder mysteries written by the author Berenson and is based on the life of the primary protagonist, Melanie Travis who is a school teacher by profession. She also owns a number of full size Standard Poodles for dogs. The series deals with the adventures of Melanie Travis, involving the dogs and the dog show circuit in different degrees. She provides a great view of the world of showing, raising and training dogs. The novel series written by author Laurien Berenson consists of a total of 18 novels published between the years 1995 and 2015. The series is still ongoing and author Berenson always tries to find some time from her busy schedule for writing the plot of the latest novels in the series.

One of the initial novels of the Melanie Travis series was titled ‘Underdog’. The novel was published by the Kensington publishing house in the year 1996. The plot of the novel is set in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States and revolves around the activities in the life of the main character, Melanie Travis and her dogs. Melanie Travis is introduced in the first novel of the series as a single mother and a school teacher by profession. She is shown trying to overcome her difficult life after the death of her uncle in the summer. However, the troubles in her life do not stop as the prized poodle of her uncle gets disappeared. After a few investigations she begins to believe that the death of her uncle and the disappearance of his poodle is somehow connected and she sets herself out in search of the killer who murdered her uncle and stole his prized poodle. In the second novel of the series, she is introduced again as a teacher in Connecticut and a single mother. She has become successful in having her own pedigree poodle and seems to be overwhelmed on becoming its owner.

Along with handling her poodle she also uncovers a killer who hides between the dog handlers and their pets. Melanie understands that being an underdog is not easy and even though she and her 5 month old doggy lack in experience, they do not let the enthusiasm in their life overcome their inexperience. Melanie joins a bred-handling class at an obedience school in Connecticut, however, her class gets cut short due to a sudden death that happens in the school. Melanie and her pup begin to doubt that it might be a murder. Soon, she hits the championship circuit along with her puppy, Sam Driver and 5 year old son. She knows that winning is everything on the circuit, but she also knows that there are many suspects who had the motive of killing the victim. Among the main suspects are the envious younger sister of the victim, a rival handler and kennel owner, who guards her secret recipe for making dog biscuits. Melanie Travis learns a few tricks of her own in between the laps of the show ring. However, the killer is now on the hunt for Melanie and her puppy and she is required to act fast in order save herself and her close ones from becoming the next victims of the killer.

The next novel in the Melanie Travis series was titled ‘Dog Eat Dog’. It was published by the Kensington publishing house in the year 1996. The plot of the novel is set in Connecticut, United States and continues to deal with the life of the central character, Melanie Travis. Melanie is once again shown as a school teacher, single mother and the owner of her puppy named Faith. She is not able to get away from the circuits of the Fairfield County and remains addicted to it. Because of her addiction, she has become a common name among the dog fanciers. The author Berenson once again shows Melanie as going on an irresistible outing. She takes herself into the inner circles of an elite kennel club in Connecticut, where the competition is quite tough. The club has some shocking secrets that get revealed later on in the novel. Melanie used to manage her time between training her puppy for the show ring, raising her son Davey and romancing with Sam Driver. However, her Aunt Peg repeatedly asks her to join the Belle Haven Kennel Club. However, the prize money of the competition organized by the club goes missing and one of the members of the club is found dead in the parking lot. The victim turns out to be a woman who was witnessed by her pair of Beagles when she was getting murdered. Melanie tries to snoop around and do some investigation in order to get some clue about the murder. However, she is disturbed by the arrival of her ex-husband who comes to take the joint custody of her son Davey. In order to keep her mind away from her ex-husband, she indulges herself into the investigation of the murder in the Belle Haven Kennel Club. Melanie discovers that each and every member of the club had something or the other to hide. With further investigation, she unravels the truth about the illegal show practices and forged pedigrees. However, in doing so, she finds herself getting closer to a dogged killer who is about to strike again and Melanie seems to be at the receiving end this time.

2 Responses to “Laurien Berenson”

1. Janie Hemminger: 8 months ago

   Being in the dog show game myself, it’s a good way for someone who’s looking to enter the wonderful world ofAKC events held every weekend in cities all over America. Melanie couldn’t get into more trouble if she tried.
   I look forward to each new book in the series. Just love the ways she describes other breeds to a T. Being a Basset Hound person, I loved the way she depicted the traits and ways a typical Basset behaves. She continues to nail other breeds and their characteristics according to the breed standard. I want to commend you Lauren for giving us nic, clean fun stories about dogs and the sport of dog shows, thank you very much.

   Reply
2. Janice Kilby: 2 years ago

   Loved Murder at the Puppy Fest. Darling cover too. Looking forward to reading the rest of your books.

   Reply