HAIR OF THE DOG

A third time on the Westchester/Connecticut dog-show circuit with Melanie Travis (Dog Eat Dog, 1996, etc.), divorced teacher, mother of five-year-old Davey, and lover of rugged computer designer Sam Driver. A little-liked trainer-handler, Barry Turk, has been shot and killed in the driveway of the house he shared with Alicia Devane, who had left her show-judge husband Bill for Turk. Pregnant, distraught, and under police suspicion, Alicia now asks Melanie to help her find the killer. A sympathetic Melanie starts asking questions, encouraged as usual by her bossy Aunt Peg, a breeder of Standard Poodles. Melanie's interest focuses on Viv and Ron Pullman—the two abruptly shifted their prize Chow from Turk's management to handler Crawford Langley and have been bad-mouthed by Turk ever since—and she also digs up several victims of Turk's sexual harassment, plus a spate of illicit affairs in unexpected places. It's going nowhere—slowly- -until a second killing and a magazine gossip item lead Melanie (the police have vanished) to an off-the-wall solution. Only for those obsessed with show dogs (their grooming, hair problems, and ingratiating personalities). All else here is absurdly contrived and unconvincing.