Help needed...

[deborahjross]

... in identifying these books. My cousin, not a reader of sf/f, is looking for a book for a friend:

she loves anthropomorphic animals (animals with human characteristics..) and recently read a novel where the dog talks and actually is the one solving crimes... Since this is so very much NOT my genrre but seemed rather fantastical I thought, maybe in your journeys, you might know of such a book or series or writer etc...

Any ideas, anyone?

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Could it be John Levitt's series? First book is Dog Days. His web site is at http://jlevitt.com/

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Or Spencer Quinn, Dog On It?

[controuble.livejournal.com]

There are several of these anthropomorphic mystery series around. The ones I know best have mainly cats rather than just dogs. The Joe Grey series by Shirley Rousseau Murphy (3 talking cats) and the Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (this one has a corgi and 2 cats). And there's always the Midnight Louie series by Carole Nelson Douglas.

[flyinamazon.livejournal.com]

Leaving out traditional fantasy makes this hard. I've read a number of books with anthropomorphic characters, but they mostly qualify as fantasy.

They don't talk, but the cats in the "Cat who..." mysteries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Who_series) are definitely not your normal cats.

"Anonymous Rex" and "Casual Rex" might qualify as well -- they're hard boiled detective novels with a dinosaur as the main detective. OTOH, they might be too fantastical.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

The title is Dogonit or something similar. Don't remember the author. I should be in paperback by now. I loaned bbe my hc copy so heaven only knows where in his black hole of a house it is.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

That's it! Loved it.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU, everyone!! I've forwarded your suggestions to my cousin. I think her friend is most likely thinking of "Dog On It." It was great to be reminded of the others for my own pleasure reading.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I don't think so, Jim. I love John's series, but the dog-shaped Ifrit sounds too far afield.

When I last saw John (at my signing for HASTUR LORD at Borderlands in SF) he said he was working on another in that series -- drools of anticipation!

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Kari and Phyl -- If that isn't it, it's pretty close. You are so brilliant!

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Great suggestions, thank you! Makes me want to run out and read them all.

(NO.... must... finish... novel... first...)

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, cross-genre does make things interesting. I suspect the book would be filed as fantasy, at least in a bookstore. Who knows what a library would do with it? (I once saw Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books under "Historical Fiction.")

I've read a couple of the Rex books, and think they're too gritty for what my cousin's looking for.