Mystery type:
Furry sleuth mysteries focus on a pet as the primary investigator, or have the pet help an amateur detective by guiding them to clues and the eventual antagonist. Many of these mysteries overlap with the cozy mystery subgenre.
Drink pairing:
Puppuccino
Why they go together:
The best way to enjoy a furry sleuth mystery is with your own furry companion by your side. What better drink to share than a puppuccino! Not sure how to make a puppuccino? It’s easy. Just put whipped cream in a mug. Both you and your furry friend will love it.
Where to start:
When librarian Kathleen Paulson moved to Mayville Heights, Minnesota, she had no idea that two strays would nuzzle their way into her life. Owen is a tabby with a catnip addiction and Hercules is a stocky tuxedo cat who shares Kathleen's fondness for Barry Manilow. But beyond all the fur and purrs, there's something more to these felines. When murder interrupts Mayville's Music Festival, Kathleen finds herself the prime suspect. More stunning is her realization that Owen and Hercules are magical—and she's relying on their skills to solve a purr-fect murder.
Holly Miller's life has gone to the dogs. She has no job, her boyfriend's former flame is sniffing around, and a scruffy but lovable Jack Russell Terrier is scattering crumbs all over her borrowed car. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, a troubling phone call about her grandmother sends her rushing home to the family inn on Wagtail Mountain. The staff—and a frisky Calico kitten named Twinkletoes—adopts Holly and her new dog on arrival. But someone in this friendly town is bad to the bone. One of the employees at the inn has been killed in a hit-and-run accident—which is looking anything but accidental. Now Holly and her furry companions will have to nose out the murderer before someone else gets muzzled.
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
Jim Qwilleran is a prizewinning reporter who's been on the skids but is now coming back with a job as feature writer for the Daily Fluxion. George Bonifield Mountclemens, the paper's harsh art critic, lives with his all-knowing cat Koko in a lushly furnished house in a moldering neighborhood and has a raft of enemies all over town. He offers the newcomer a tiny apartment in his building at a nominal rent, and Qwilleran grabs it, surmising the deal will involve lots of cat-sitting.Earl Lambreth owns a gallery whose artists get happier treatment from Mountclemens. The acerbic critic has praised paintings there including works by Lambreth's attractive wife Zoe. It's Zoe who, one night after closing, finds her husband stabbed to death in the vandalized gallery. Days later, Qwilleran, guided by an insistent Koko, finds Mountclemens's knifed corpse on the patio behind his house.
Tripping Magazine is a quirky, low-budget magazine that reports on travel destinations for believers in the paranormal. A few fake ghosts away from throwing in the towel, the Tripping staff get the tip of a lifetime when they get a call from Charlotte Baskerville, the rich founder of a clothing company for small dogs. Charlotte thinks that her Chihuahua, Petey, has come back from the dead, and she’s desperate for someone to come verify his appearances.
Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows librarian Charlie Harris—and his Maine Coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. They also know his former classmate-turned-bestselling-novelist, Godfrey Priest. But someone in Athena took Godfrey off the bestseller lists—permanently, and with extreme prejudice. Now, Charlie and Diesel must browse through the history section of the town's past to find a killer.
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