One of the ways that humanity seems to be divided into two camps is cat lovers and dog lovers (as always with these blunt divisions we’ll ignore those who love both or neither for the purposes of this post). From a crime fiction perspective cat lovers are pretty well catered for with several series all to themselves, the most well-known is probably The Cat Who… novels by Lillian Jackson-Braun. But what might dog loving crime fiction readers find for entertainment?
Laurien Berenson has written 15 books featuring teacher and amateur sleuth Melanie Travis, her standard poodle Faith and her Aunt Peg who is a breeder and judge of the breed. I featured one of her books, Watchdog, in the last round of the crime fiction alphabet but many of the other books take place in and around the slightly crazy world of dog breeding and judging so it’s definitely a good series for the dog lovers out there.
Michael Bond is best known as the creator of the Paddington Bear series of children’s books but he also has a long running mystery series for adults set in France. They feature Monsieur Aristide Pamplemousse who started his working life as a gourmet restaurant inspector but then turns to retire and become a travel and food writer. He investigates a rather alarming number of deaths associated with French restaurants with the help of his canine companion, a very intelligent bloodhound called Pommes Frites. In the fourth book of the series, Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, our trusty investigator is perturbed by the lack of gourmet food at a health spa he is investigating but the dog tracks down some gourmet sausages and then helps clear up the troubles using a floating kennel filled with helium. Farce yes but clever too.
Ted Wood’s police procedural series set in Ontario Canada features Reid Bennett who is the Police Chief in the town of Murphy’s Harbour and is always accompanied by his attack-trained German Shepherd Sam. In 1985′s Live Bait the pair take on the task of locating the perpetrators of a series of vicious bashings of private security guards. Sam is often responsible for saving Ted’s skin in this series.
Susan Conant’s Dog Lover’s Mystery series currently runs to 18 titles. The first one, A New Leash on Death, was released in 1989 and introduces Holly Winter who in that novel at least is a columnist for Dog’s Life magazine (she later becomes a freelance writer). She is shocked to see some dog obedience trials end with the strangulation of one of the human competitors and feels obligated to investigate (thank heavens for busy body amateurs of course). Throughout the series Holly and the dog she adopts during the first book tackle a range of topical doggy subjects including puppy farming and various aspects of showing and breeding man’s best friend.
Even though there are no books involved I can’t leave the subject of crime fiction for dog lovers without talking about the Austrian-made German language TV series Kommissar Rex (which airs in English-speaking countries as Inspector Rex). The first of 11 seasons (so far) was shown in 1994 and features a three-man investigative team based in Vienna who use German Shepherd Rex as a cadaver dog, a snifferer-out of various contraband including drugs and all-around super hero (a more danger-loving Lassie if you will). The show is so popular in other countries that when it looked like being cancelled several years ago it was picked up by Italian TV and now Rex is in Rome with an Italian policeman (though I still miss the early days when Rex was looked after by Moser). The show is very popular here in Australia too so I suspect we’d have offered him a home if a suitable kennel hadn’t been found in Europe 
As someone who has owned far more dogs than cats I must admit to a preference for canines in crime fiction myself. Do you have any favourite crime fiction for dog lovers?
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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week (a book title, an author name, a subject…) Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.
This is the second round of the meme which was first run from late 2009 to early 2010. My contributions that time were discussions of books with one word titles.
The series isn’t likely to set the world on fire but it is well written, solidly paced and, most important for my cosy reading, full of gentle humour. Melanie’s Aunt Peg is a judge of champion poodles and Melanie’s staunchest supporter. She’s a great character and, for my money, funnier and more interesting than Stephanie Plum’s loopy grandmother. Melanie is a single mum (though she does have a love interest) with lots of irons in the fire and her juggling of work, family and poodles is credibly portrayed. I grew up in a dog-showing household and the antics and obsessions of dog showing fanatics depicted here are very realistic and offer lots of humorous potential. My recommendation for a lazy afternoon for dog lovers who can see the funny side of their obsession is to read Watchdog then check out 
