Under The Dog Star

Description for UNDER THE DOG STAR by Sandra Parshall:

Something terrifying is happening to the dogs in the mountain community of Mason County, Virginia. "Missing Dog" posters cover the waiting room walls at Dr. Rachel Goddard's veterinary clinic. A pack of feral canines roams at night, attacking livestock in a desperate search for food. Now a prominent physician, Gordon Hall, has been found dead, his throat torn open.

Sheriff 's Department investigator Tom Bridger believes the killing was premeditated murder, with a trained attack dog as the weapon. But Dr. Hall's son insists that the pack killed his father, and he organizes a group of men to find and shoot the animals.

Rachel and her friend Holly Turner make enemies by trying to move the pack to sanctuary. Tom, in love with Rachel, struggles to divide his time among the feral dog problem, the search for the dogfighting operation, and the hunt for Gordon Hall's killer. It's complicated by Hall's five rivalrous children and a multitude of suspects -- human and canine.

This is #4 in A Rachel Goddard Mystery.