Susan Conant

• Born: May 20, 1946
• Place of Birth: Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts

TYPES OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth; cozy

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Dog Lover’s, 1990-2015; Cat Lover’s, 2005-; Gourmet Girl, 2006-2010

Contribution

Susan Conant published her first dog mystery, A New Leash on Life, in 1990, a year before authors Sue Henry and Mary Willis Walker published crime novels depicting female dog-training sleuths and working dogs. Although some critics identify Conant as initiating the dog mystery genre, she and her writing peers had prior literary canine-related mystery inspirations, including Sherlock Holmes. In 1983, Barbara Moore wrote The Doberman Wore Black, which featured a veterinarian sleuth assisted by a dog. Nonetheless, Conant established herself as a leading author in that subgenre.

Scholars have generally ignored Conant’s contributions to the mystery genre. Although some critics have found fault with Conant’s writing style, particularly her plotting and development of mystery elements, others have praised her dialogue, depictions of settings, and characterizations, which became more complex and admirable as her writing matured. Her fan base assured Conant of consistent commercial success, and she continued to produce new dog mysteries annually. In 2005, Conant’s reputation as an author who delivered satisfying stories to readers interested in dog mysteries resulted in her introducing a series for cat enthusiasts. Her success also enabled her to pursue writing mysteries with her daughter, addressing lifestyle and cultural interests unlike those readers experienced in her animal-themed novels.

Conant has striven to introduce readers to the dog world and educate them regarding topics and issues that might otherwise be unfamiliar. The Dog Writers’ Association of America has rewarded Conant’s works with its Maxwell Award several times.

Biography

Susan Jane Conant was born on May 20, 1946, in the Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts, to Eugene A. Conant and Dorothy Morrison Conant. At the time of her birth, Susan’s father served as president of Anderson-Wills Incorporated, a business selling automobiles in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where her mother’s family lived. A resident of nearby Methuen, Massachusetts, her mother had previously worked as a secretary for Anderson-Wills. Susan’s paternal grandfather had worked as a high school principal in Maine. Susan grew up in the Merrimack Valley, spending part of her childhood in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Her father trained pointers and encouraged his daughter’s interest in dogs.

In 1964, Susan Conant moved to the Boston area, enrolling at Radcliffe College, where she studied anthropology and social relations. She received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in June 1968. Also in 1968, Conant wed Carter Conrad Umbarger, who received his doctorate in psychology from Brandeis University the following year.

Conant moved to Philadelphia, where she was a kindergarten teacher for public schools in 1969. During that year and the next, she served as a group therapist for the Child Study Center of Philadelphia. Conant relocated with her husband to Newton, Massachusetts, and he established a clinical psychology practice in nearby Cambridge. They have one daughter, Jessica.

In 1973, Conant began studies focusing on human development at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. During 1974 and 1975, she served as a research assistant for the University of Houston. Conant completed a master’s degree in education at Harvard in June 1975. She then enrolled in a doctoral education program at Harvard. Her primary research studied preschool children with language disabilities.

From 1976 to 1978, Conant was a teaching assistant for Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and a Harvard Extension School grader. She then was a research associate at the Research Institute for Educational Problems in Cambridge in 1978. Conant received a doctorate in education from Harvard in 1978.

During the next decade, Conant pursued a career as a special education researcher. In the fall of 1986, Conant experienced chronic fevers, aches, and a fluctuating white blood cell count and suffered abnormal fatigue. Conant acquired an Alaskan malamute puppy, which stayed with her during her extended illness. Conant was frustrated when her illness persisted, and doctors could not determine what was wrong. Gradually, her symptoms stopped, and she recovered. Conant interviewed other people with chronic fatigue and wrote a nonfictional book about their experiences.

Conant had enjoyed reading Nancy Drew and other mysteries as a child. While she was sick, she enjoyed mysteries by her favorite authors, including , and considered writing mysteries. While attending weekly dog training classes in 1988, Conant began writing mysteries when she envisioned a plot involving a trainer disappearing during an obedience exercise. Conant submitted her manuscript to a publisher, who presented her with a contract for a dog mystery series.

In addition to novels, Conant wrote articles and reviews for dog magazines, contributing to the opinion column “Point of View” in Pure-bred Dogs/American Kennel Gazette. She edited Pawprints, the New England Dog Training Club’s newsletter. Conant belongs to the New England Dog Training Club and Charles River Dog Training Club and competes in matches to earn obedience titles with her dogs. She helped establish Alaskan Malamute Rescue of New England and became the Massachusetts coordinator of the Alaskan Malamute Protection League in 1988.

Conant has served on the board of directors of the New England chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and belongs to Sisters in Crime, the Dog Writers’ Association of America, and the Cat Writers’ Association.

Analysis

Susan Conant’s style is reminiscent of that found in popular mystery fiction featuring strong female protagonists, such as the series of Marcia Muller and , which were popular during the 1980s, when Conant was first inspired to write mysteries. In her character-driven mysteries, Conant presents her stories through the first-person narrative of Holly Winter, whose perceptions of people and situations she encounters are sometimes unreliable and distorted by her emotional reactions. Winter’s point of view is the narrative device in all of Conant’s dog mysteries. Her voice gains maturity as she survives various attacks and seeks justice for mistreated dogs and people.

Conant’s literary strength is her use of humor, particularly her characterizations of eccentric and pretentious people. Winter recognizes the flaws of her Cambridge, Massachusetts, environment, wittily commenting about Ivy League culture and the abundance of psychologists. Conant’s professional background as a language educator enables her to present dialogue well.

Conant’s depiction of places immerses readers in her settings. Her expertise and insights regarding dogs can be considered both a strength and a weakness. Sometimes, the details are welcome, but sometimes, they seem intrusive and overwhelming. Conant admits that she is interested in teaching readers about proper dog ownership and care. Through her characters, she stresses themes of animal welfare and humanitarian treatment, warning readers of abuses at puppy mills and animal research laboratories.

Conant’s experiences as a psychologist’s wife and longtime resident of Cambridge provide authenticity while sometimes presenting information that eludes readers unfamiliar with those subjects. Usually, such incidental descriptions and revelations are not essential for the resolution of Conant’s mysteries and do not serve as red herrings. Conant’s mysteries are sometimes predictable and have weak conclusions. Villains’ motivations occasionally seem unbelievable and not substantial enough for individuals to resort to committing crimes or murders. Narrative pacing is frequently slowed by too many unnecessary details and introspection, particularly involving psychological disorders and treatments.

Conant’s characterizations of dogs are often more vividly portrayed and developed than those of humans. Her canine characters exhibit authentic dog behavior, while some of her people are caricatures. Through her characters, Conant emphasizes themes of service and loyalty as well as disobedience and stubbornness. In particular, her canine characters underscore her overall themes of companionship and devotion. Conant’s presentations of exploited, abused, and neglected characters, both human and animal, stress her themes of mercy, tolerance, and the possibilities of redemption, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

A New Leash on Death

Conant introduces Holly Winter in her first mystery, A New Leash on Death, which foreshadows many of the situations and relationships that are important to Winter in later books in the series. By revealing Winter’s reactions to crises, Conant establishes Winter’s independent personality and commitment to dogs. Readers learn that the dog trainer is resourceful and determined to protect animals from negligent owners and that she will seek assistance when necessary to achieve her aim.

In A New Leash on Death, Dr. Frank Stanton is choked to death with his leash while training Rowdy, an Alaskan malamute. Winter taps her father, Buck, and specific dog breeders for information and contacts while researching a tattoo number to discover the background of Rowdy, who Stanton claimed he owned.

Holly’s vulnerabilities are revealed when she reminisces about her mother and wishes she were as talented with dogs as her mother, a dog trainer, had been. Her manipulative side is also shown in her negotiations with her neighbor, Kevin Dennehy, a police officer who has inside information regarding crimes. Knowing he is romantically interested in her, Winter allows Dennehy to keep beer and meat at her house because his strictly religious mother forbids him to have these items in the home they share. Although she convinces Dennehy to divulge secrets, Winter rarely reciprocates and discourages an intimate relationship. Instead, she pursues a romance with her veterinarian, Steve Delaney. Winter also confides in Rita, a therapist who rents an apartment in Winter’s three-story house.

Conant reveals the socioeconomic diversity of dog enthusiasts, which enables her to create a broad cast of potential culprits. Greed and pride are emphasized as motives. Winter realizes her resilience and courage when confronted by the killer, who tries to choke her. That ordeal, with Rowdy by her side, establishes the foundation for their future teamwork.

Scratch the Surface

Conant’s tone in Scratch the Surface (2005), the first novel in her cat mystery series, is often sarcastic and cynical. Protagonist Felicity Pride’s experiences as an author of cat mysteries are far from ideal. Few fans show up at her book signings, a Russian publisher is selling her book illegally, and her rival Isabelle Hotchkiss has better sales. Pride’s problems intensify when Quinlan Coates, a professor, is found dead in her vestibule. A cat waits beside him. Although Pride is a cat mystery writer, she knows nothing about cats. She initially views the cat and murder as an opportunity for publicity that might advance her career but is disappointed by the meager, and often inaccurate, coverage of the case.

Pride makes fumbling efforts to care for both of Coates’s cats and solve the mystery of why he was murdered, although such efforts are not natural for someone with her seemingly rigid, selfish, aloof personality, which alienates many of her neighbors and peers. Pride becomes attached to the cats while trying to determine their identity and generously assisting detective Dave Valentine, whom she desires romantically, as she learns more about the cats and their owner’s secrets.

Although Conant includes brief chapters revealing the two cats’ perspectives, she does not give them human qualities or have them speak. Through Pride, she reveals details of the mystery-writing profession, expressing some dissatisfaction with the process through Pride’s thoughts. Pride is not the animal lover that Winter is, but she does develop into a caring person capable of being kind to both people and animals, enhancing her public image as a cat mystery writer.

Gaits of Heaven

In Gaits of Heaven (2006), Conant exposes her broad knowledge of psychology, psychiatry, and pharmacology as Winter deals with a couple, Ted and Eumie Green, who refuse to control their Aussie huskapoo Dolfo when they attend a class at her training club. Ted and Eumie ask Winter to help them but ignore her traditional training advice. After Eumie dies from what is assumed to be an overdose but might be murder, Winter permits Eumie’s overweight daughter Caprice, who is a Harvard classmate of Winter’s cousin Leah, to stay in her home. She soon realizes that the Green family has extensive problems involving Caprice’s father, Monty; her stepfather, Ted; and her stepbrother Wyeth.

Feeling empathy for Dolfo and Caprice, Winter intercedes, putting herself at risk to protect the vulnerable dog and girl. Conant’s narrative bogs down as she introduces the characters’ countless therapists and other medical professionals. The plot becomes too convoluted, introducing subplots such as mysterious squirrel poisonings and Winter dealing with her husband’s former wife, Anita Fairley, who attacks Winter and her dogs.

Steamed

Because Conant collaborated with her daughter, Jessica Conant-Park, to write the Gourmet Girl series, her style is less apparent than in her animal mysteries. The mystery in the first novel in the series, Steamed (2006), was primarily plotted by Conant, which seems formulaic, relying on her daughter to provide information about young-adult culture in the early twenty-first century. The most obvious difference is that dogs are not a major component of the life of the protagonist, Chloe Carter. Instead, she is consumed with gourmet food and how her peers perceive her, looking for acceptance based on her clothes and other superficial factors. She studies only to retain her inheritance, which finances her lifestyle.

Intent on finding a boyfriend, Carter signs up on a dating website with the username GourmetGirl. Her blind date with DinnerDude, the obnoxious Eric Rafferty, is disrupted when he is murdered in a restaurant bathroom. Carter passively permits Rafferty’s parents to believe she is engaged to their son but pursues a handsome chef, Josh Driscoll, at the reception after Rafferty’s funeral. Carter continues her relationship with Driscoll, although his knife is revealed to be the murder weapon. Like Winter, Carter unearths lies, suspects her love interest, and cultivates a close relationship with a female friend, but her revelations result more from coincidences and impulsiveness than reasoned action.

Further novels in the series include Simmer Down (2007), Turn Up the Heat (2008), Fed Up (2009), and Cook the Books (2010). Conant then published further works in her Dog Lover's mystery series, including Brute Strength (2011) and Sire and Damn (2015).

Principal Series Characters:

• Holly Winter is a dog trainer and journalist in her thirties who writes for Dog’s Life and lives with her Alaskan malamutes, Rowdy and Kimi, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She promotes the humanitarian treatment of animals and encourages responsible dog ownership and obedience training. Exhibiting many of the traits she admires in dogs, Winter is a loyal friend and nurtures her relationships. A good daughter, she tolerates the interest of her widower father, Buck, in wolf hybrids and strives to honor the dog handler legacy of her deceased mother, Marissa. Crimes confront Winter as she interacts with dog owners and eccentric Cambridge residents.
• Felicity Pride is a middle-aged retired kindergarten teacher who is the author of the Prissy LaChatte cat mysteries but lacks experience with felines until she adopts a murdered man’s pets. She lacks Winter’s sincerity and naïveté. Jaded regarding her profession, Pride jealously resents rival authors whose cat mystery series sell more copies than her books and discourages novice writers whom she perceives as lacking talent. Pride lives in a luxurious house in Newton Park, Massachusetts, that she inherited from her uncle and endures her difficult mother’s and neighbors’ demands while trying to solve mysteries immediately affecting her.
• Chloe Carter is a social work graduate student in her twenties who attends a Boston college near her Brighton, Massachusetts, apartment only to fulfill stipulations in her uncle’s will so she may receive his money. Unenthused by her classes and an internship at a helpline, narcissistic Carter constantly repaints her apartment and seeks satisfying romance, stylish clothing, and delicious food, meanwhile bumbling into criminal situations. She is immature compared with Winter and Pride but shares their impulsive nature, which often results in her revealing clues and culprits.

Bibliography

Ackerman, Alan, et al. A New Literary History of America. Harvard UP, 2021.

Beegan, Daniel. “Her Life’s Work: Going to the Dogs, Books Feature Canines, People in Their Lives.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 June 1994, p. 3E.

Conant, Susan. “Mysterious Presence.” Radcliffe Quarterly, vol. 83, no. 4, Spring 1998, p. 11.

Dale, Steve. “Cover to Cover with Mystery Writer Susan Conant.” Dog World, vol. 90, no. 5, May 2005, pp. 24-25.

Heising, Willetta L. Detecting Women: A Reader’s Guide and Checklist for Mystery Series Written by Women. 3rd ed., Purple Moon Press, 2000.

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, editor. Great Women Mystery Writers: Classic to Contemporary. Greenwood Press, 1994.