Dog in the Manger An Eli Paxton Mystery4.5stars

 

 

The Baroness is Missing, Doggone It!

By Mike Resnick

Seventh Street Books, $13.95, 201 pages

Master novelist Mike Resnick has done it again with this fast-paced, read-it-all-in-one-sitting mystery novel. The plot is uncanny, full of twists and turns, murders and mayhem, taking P.I. Eli Paxton from Cincinnati to Arizona and Mexico and back. Baroness von Tannelwald has disappeared. She’s “from one of Arizona’s old Weimaraner families,” the distressed and frantic client explained. “She’s a dog” – a Westminster champion Weimaraner, no less. Dog show lore, a big dog house, dog crates and wealthy dog handlers and owners pop up throughout the book, but where’s the Baroness? Besides the champion gone missing, you and the stalwart Eli Paxton will also be hard pressed to find the manger (of the title). There are a lot of false leads in this missing dog tale until, almost at the end, the where’s, why’s and how’s of it all are shockingly revealed.

This sort of vintage Resnick makes for a good read. And once you’re done with it at the back of the book there’s a bonus short story that also includes a dog, briefly.

Reviewed by Don Messerschmidt

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