Mysteries for Dog Lovers

This week was the 137th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and an Affenpinscher named Banana Joe took home Best in Show. There are more than a few dog lovers on staff at Carnegie-Stout. Our pooches may never win best in breed, but we love them all the same!

Like peanut butter and jelly, dogs and mystery novels are an excellent combination. So for this Friday's blog post, we're highlighting a few of the doggy mystery series available at Carnegie-Stout!

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
Spencer Quinn’s hilarious mystery series featuring detective duo Bernie and Chet is a Carnegie-Stout favorite. Bernie is a PI, and his partner, and the series narrator, is Chet, a cat hating canine. The series starts with Dog On It, Bernie and Chet take on the investigation of a missing teenage girl. Readers who prefer audiobooks should definitely check out James Frangione's narration. Quinn is a pen name of author Peter Abrahams, who writes psychological suspense as well as books for teens and younger readers.

Elvis and the Dearly Departed by Peggy Webb

The Southern Cousins mystery series by Peggy Webb is another funny series featuring a doggy narrator (who thinks he's Elvis Presley reincarnated). Elvis the basset hound lives with (and shares narrator duty with) Callie Valentine Jones, who does hair for the deceased at her uncle's funeral home in Tupelo, Mississippi. The pages are filled with a colorful cast of characters, and an upbeat atmosphere. In Elvis and the Dearly Departed, Callie and Elvis take on the case of a missing corpse.

Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston
Linda Johnston's Pet Rescue Mysteries series is not as lighthearted, though there is a touch of romance. The series starts with Beaglemania, and features amateur sleuth Lauren Vancouver, manager of a No-Kill shelter in California. Lauren suspects that a man with a history of animal abuse has ties to a puppy mill when she finds beagle puppies abandoned in a drain pipe. But when that man is found murdered in her shelter, Lauren becomes the number one suspect.

The Dog Park Club by Cynthia Robinson
Cynthia Robinson's offbeat mystery series features a quirky cast of characters, headed by Max Bravo, bisexual opera singer whose dead grandmother is a frequent spectral visitor. Max comes to Berkeley to dog-sit for his friend Claudia (she's going through a rough divorce), and friendships form among the regulars at the local dog park. When Amy, a pregnant dog owner, goes missing, the regulars all suspect her husband's to blame.

Hounding the Pavement by Judi McCoy
Judi McCoy combines mystery, romance, and the paranormal in her upbeat and charming Dog Walker Mysteries series. Hounding the Pavement is the first book in the series. Ellie, recovering from a recent divorce, decides to make use of her new found talent for telepathic communication with dogs by starting a business as a  dog walker. When one of her clients is killed, Ellie works to track down the client's missing Bichon, with the help of an attractive NYPD Detective.

Dead Canaries Don't Sing by Cynthia Baxter
Baxter's Reigning Cats & Dogs is another New York mystery series with appeal for dog lovers: the pages are packed with doggy detail. Dr. Jessica Popper, veterinarian, is almost always accompanied by her pack, Max and Lou. So it's no surprise that her canine companions are there when they uncover a dead body at a horse farm while making a house call. There's a touch of romance, when Jessica teams up with a PI to crack the case.


Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!