In Partnership with Kensington Books
By Mary Feliz, author of Cliff Hanger: A Maggie McDonald Mystery
Whether you’re kicking back in the shade with a book and a frosty class of iced tea or waiting out a heat wave by enjoying the A/C, there are times when only a dog book will do. Luckily, there are a myriad of authors who love canines as much as we all do.
While this list only scrapes the surface, here are a few of my favorites:
Fiction
Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt
Part of an ongoing series featuring lawyer/detective Andy Carpenter, his golden retriever, and an ever-changing parade of other dogs. Rosenfelt promises the golden, Tara, will never die.
Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima
Book one of the Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Series introduces Colorado police officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo and provides an in-depth look at the complexities of the human-canine team.
A View to Die For by Richard Houston
Book one in the series combines the story of an ordinary man with that of an extraordinary dog as Jacob Martin and his golden retriever travel from Colorado to the Ozarks to solve a murder that has landed Jake’s sister in a jail cell.
Dog on It by Spencer Quinn
A human/canine detective duo with a twist. The narrator is Chet, private investigator Bernie Little’s mixed-breed partner. Chet flunked out of K-9 school, which he blames on the distractions posed by several cats. In his alternative career, he delivers his first-person (first-dog?) account with biting wit. A New York Times best-selling series.
The White Shepherd by Annie Dalton
Fans of British television mysteries could not be faulted were they to fear early morning walks with their dogs, who always seem to be sniffing out murdered corpses. But the human/canine pairs then vanish, never to be heard from again. Annie Dalton’s Oxford Dog Walker’s series focuses on white German Shepherd Bonnie who discovers a body in the undergrowth. Bonnie and her person, Anna Hopkins, team up with fellow dogwalkers to follow up their discovery set the police’s wayward investigation straight.
Burning Man by Alan Russell
Another first-in-series offering, Burning Man introduces Los Angeles cop Michael Gideon and his partner Sirius. While this book is grittier than the others, and includes grisly flashbacks of the episode in which Gideon suffered life-threatening and life-changing burns, the close relationship developing between Sirius and his person make the book worth reading. While trust issues trouble them, their survival depends on their ability to overcome them.
Address to Die For by Mary Feliz
Featuring a golden retriever, Belle, Address to Die For is the first book in my Maggie McDonald Mystery series. Though the series focuses on professional organizer Maggie McDonald and her efforts to bring order to chaos for her clients, her California town, and life with her family, the books also include a wide array of canine friends.
Non-Fiction
A Good Man with a Dog by Kate Flora and Roger Guay
Flora and Guay weave a complex tale revealing the real-life experiences of a game garden and his K-9 partners. From tracking hostile poachers to searching for victims of violent crimes their work is backdropped by the remote and chilling beauty of Maine’s remote woodlands.
Dogtripping by David Rosenfelt
The true and often hilarious story of author Rosenfelt’s real-life adventure in moving his family from Southern California to Maine. The challenge? His family includes twenty-five rescue dogs. An NPR Best Book of 2013.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mary Feliz writes the Maggie McDonald Series of cozy mysteries featuring a professional organizer turned amateur detective and her sidekick golden retriever in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. Cliff Hanger, the fifth book in the series, releases July 16 from Kensington Publishing. Address to Die For, the first installment in the series, was named a Best Book of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews. A resident of Northern California for decades, she now lives on Monterey Bay, enjoying the area’s myriad natural treasures. She attends organizing conferences in her character’s stead, but Maggie’s skills leave her in the dust. Visit Mary Feliz at www.MaryFeliz.com.
