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A Dog at Sea: A Bull Moose Dog Run Mystery    by J. F. Englert Amazon.com order for
Dog at Sea
by J. F. Englert
Order:  USA  Can
Dell, 2009 (2009)
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* * *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

Randolph, a Labrador retriever with a penchant for literature, and his artistic owner Harry take to the high seas in this third novel in the Bull Moose Dog Run mystery series.

Sailing toward the Caribbean on the Nordic Bliss, a gigantic cruise ship, the pair is off on a special pet-lovers' voyage. As Randolph so succinctly explains in the opening chapter, this is a cruise that is 'chock-full of characters who would threaten to turn this middle-aged Labrador's chin completely white, leading to more than a few encounters with the absurd and the ridiculous and, most unfortunately, to some untimely passenger deaths.'

Canine experts and gun-ho trainers were to provide some of the entertainment along the way, but Randolph and Harry signed on to find clues to the whereabouts of Imogene, Harry's lady love, who went missing in the last caper Randolph chronicled.

Unfortunately, a murderer is also aboard the ship. With one victim undergoing the indignity of being killed twice, Randolph is going to have to use all his canine wits to dig up enough clues to uncover the villain. And with bad weather bearing down on the ship threatening to shake up the two and four legged revelers alike, it looks to be a very stormy passage in more ways than one.

Most shocking of all, perhaps, is the way Randolph and Harry are finally reunited with the missing Imogene. The investigative duo make a big splash in this caper and one that will have the reader shaking with laughter.

Not only is seeing the world through a very intelligent and well-read dog's eyes an original way to piece together a mystery, but once you put your disbelief on hold, I think you'll be more than willing to accept this wild premise. And if you are a dog person, you'll fall head-over-heels in love with this witty, tail-wagging narrator!

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