Dog in the Manger

September 17, 2012
Originally published in 1995, this appealing first in a light crime series from SF author Resnick (Resnick’s Menagerie) introduces hapless Cincinnati PI Eli Paxton. Desperate for work, Eli agrees to track down Baroness, a Weimaraner who won Best in Show at Westminster four months earlier and was recently shipped from Cincinnati to her owner in Arizona, but never arrived. The kennel girl involved in the shipping ends up dead, as do others. Trying to find Baroness leads Eli into a Mexican drug operation at peril to his own life. A breeder himself, Resnick brings firsthand knowledge of show dogs and irrepressible enthusiasm to this tough guy tale along with plenty of Cincinnati local color. The volume concludes with an amusing short story, “Even Butterflies Can Sting,” in which Marlowe, the Westie Eli acquires at the end of his adventures, plays a part. Agent: Spectrum Literary.

October 1, 2012

A cash-strapped PI from Cincinnati can't afford to be picky, so, with some misgivings, Eli Paxton agrees to find a missing show dog. The dog was supposed to be air-shipped to Arizona but never arrived. Within hours, Eli learns the dog handler is dead, and then folks at the small air cargo lines start disappearing. Feeling a teensy bit paranoid but much more determined, Eli forges on--heading to Phoenix to meet the dog's owner, and from there into Mexico. Eli is tougher than he looks, which is good because he's stumbled into something much bigger than dog breeding, and folks are interested in silencing him, too. VERDICT Told in an amiable first-person narrative dripping with sarcasm, Resnick's engrossing puzzler (originally published in 1995) captures the essence of the antiheroic PI. Resnick, a noted science fiction author (five Hugo awards) writes with a speculative tone that translates well to the detective genre. May there be more!

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