Two Dog Tales and One Extremely Well Reviewed Thriller

As I am sure I have said before, I am a dog person in a major way. Therefore, I can almost guarantee that I will have to talk about new dog books. There are two coming out in September that I am looking forward to reading. In fact, I am reading an advance reader's electronic copy of one of them currently.

Spencer Quinn continues his Chet and Bernie series on September 10th with The Sound and the Furry. I love Chet. The story is told mostly through his eyes and his voice. Quinn's representation of the way a dog thinks is hysterical and in my opinion pretty accurate. Chet is a large dog, big enough to be scary, but with a heart that is bigger than he is. He flunked out of the police dog academy on account of, he vaguely remembers, a cat. So Bernie got a new partner and they formed the Little Detective Agency. Bernie is all knowing and pretty much invincible in Chet's mind. This time they go looking for the brother of a man they help put away in prison on the request of the prisoner. The brother, Ralph, has disappear from his houseboat in the bayou near New Orleans. On their adventure, they realize that this is more than a missing person's case and is one of their most dangerous. Yes, if you are wondering - this IS the one I am reading. Let me give you an idea of how Quinn writes

            "Bernie came closer. "What have you got there, big guy?" I had something? News to me.  Then Duke looked my way and started laughing. There was a lot of laughter in this burg, normally a good thing, but confusing at the moment. Bernie bent down and....what was this? Removed a straw hat ....from my mouth."
As I said, I love Chet.

Susan Wilson is coming out with A Man of His Own on September 24th. Wilson has previously penned two dogs books, One Good Dog and The Dog Who Danced and I have read both of them. I loved the first one and enjoyed the second. I will be reading this one too in hopes it is more like the first. When Rick Stanton goes off to WWII, he and his wife agree to volunteer the dog, Pax, for the Army's K-9 Corps. Rick comes home badly injured. Pax and his human handler in the Army, Keller,  have developed a deep bond. When it is time for Pax to go home to Rick, Keller accompanies him and becomes Rick's paid companion. A story of relationships, both husband and wife and man and dog. I am afraid I will be getting ready to cry with this title. I did with the other two also. The dog takes center stage on this one.

Finally, there has been much talk about John Searles new title. Searles is Editor-at-Large at Cosmopolitan and has written 2 national best sellers that have been picked up by the movies. On September 17th, he gives us Help for the Haunted. Sylvie Mason's parents help haunted souls find peace. Not a common occupation. She goes with them one night, is left alone in the car and falls asleep. When she wakes up, she hears gunshots and finds her parents dead on the steps of an old church. Sylvie is left in the charge of her older sister who had severed relations with her parents before their death. Sylvie tries to find out what happened to her parents and come to terms with her family's secrets. VERY VERY suspenseful. Hard to put down and hard to forget.