shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 10, 2009

Sam Stephenson: IMG Powell's Q&A: Sam Stephenson

0 comments By Sam Stephenson

Describe your latest book/project/work. I've been studying the life and work of photographer W. Eugene Smith for 13 years. My first book (Dream... Continue »
  1. $28.00 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965

    Sam Stephenson and W. Eugene Smith
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$4.50
List price: $6.99
Used Mass Market
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Burnside Mystery- A to Z
1 Hawthorne Mystery- A to Z

More copies of this ISBN:

This title in other formats:

A Dog about Town

by J F Englert

A Dog about Town Cover

ISBN13: 9780440243632
ISBN10: 0440243637
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 3 left in stock at $4.50!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Harry is a man still mourning the loss of his beloved girlfriend, Imogen, who left him suddenly without a word. He’s also the owner of a plump, poetry-loving Lab, Randolph. Like most Manhattan dogs, Randolph spends his days sifting through a world of scents, his owner’s neuroses, and an overcrowded doggy run at the American Museum of Natural History. But now a bereft Harry has drifted into a circle of would-be occultists. Which might not be so bad if one of them wasn’t also a murderer.

But which one? With 100,000 times the smelling power of a human being, Randolph can quickly detect the scents of guilt, anxiety, and avarice—and he has no lack of suspects, from a seductive con woman to an uncouth professor of the decorative arts. Now, to protect his hapless owner’s life, Randolph might have to do the unthinkable—and start training Harry to catch a killer….

Synopsis:

With his sharp intellect, his powerful nose, and the help of key non-human pals, including a Guatemalan tree sloth, canine detective Randolph the Labrador investigates the case of a famous literary figure who dies during a seance in this smart and fun debut. Original.
back to top

About the Author

J. F. Englert, a writer of fiction and nonfiction for both book and screen, lives in Manhattan with his wife, P. Englert, daughter, C. Englert, and dog, R. Englert.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
gaby317, June 29, 2009 (view all comments by gaby317)
Synopsis:

Randolph, an unlikely protagonist, is the labrador turned detective on the Upper West Side. A dog of unusual perspicacity, Randolph lives with young painter Harry. Harry recently lost his fiancee and Randolph's original owner, Imogen, and Harry hasn't been the same since. Rudderless and delving into the world of paranormal, Harry somehow finds himself at seance with an unusual death. As the murders pile up, Randolph has to find a way to somehow solve the crime with Harry's help, decipher what happened to Imogen, and save his master's life - all the while without Harry realizing Randolph's special talents.

Review:

I enjoyed the book very much and would highly recommend it. Admittedly, I was predisposed to like it - I am an avid dog lover without a dog and have since childhood enjoyed books about dogs and horses as well as mystery novels. But there is many a slip from the cup to the lip and J.F. Englert's execution was very well done!

Randolph's character is witty and sensitive and endearing. (Spoiler alert!) It makes a huge difference that Randolph is sentient, literate, and better read than his master, Harry. It reminds me a little bit of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves, although Harry isn't as clueless as Jeeve's charge.

Here's a brief excerpt:

I am also sentient. I can think. I can remember. I can understand that as the teller

of this tale I had best get most of this explanatory material over with at the beginning.

Like the reader, I compare the past and the present. I strategize and calculate. This is

not a possibility entertained by the Miriam-Webster definition. The competent editors

of that publication are not to blame for the oversight. Most dogs certainly do not behave

in ways that would suggest sentience (although I might also add that most humans do

not either as is apparent from the hastiest glances at the newspapers). Moreover, there

is at present no way to penetrate my species' muteness. Science is unable to plumb the

depths of our cerebral cortices and discern the lives of our minds. (pages 4-5)

I hadn't expected much from a book with a canine detective and had fully underestimated its possibilities. It's a highly enjoyable read.

Format and cover:

Catchy cover draws your attention. The picture fits well with the characters and plot!
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
elo, May 8, 2008 (view all comments by elo)
This is a fun and original novel that also happens to be very well written. (A pleasurable read that isn't a guilty one!)

The novel's originality lies in its first person narrative, which is conducted by a sentient, well-read black lab--with a penchant for Dante. Randolph's mistress, Imogen, went missing a year earlier, and Randolph (literally) sniffs out the guilt and emotions in potential suspects and prods Imogen's boyfriend, Harry, in the right direction to solve the case. (According to this novel, at least, a dog's sense of smell is 100,000 times superior to that of humans--I'd love to see Englert develop this scientific angle further in the next books.)

The novel ends with a cliffhanger....but luckily for me, I only read this first book a few weeks ago, and the second book in the series (A Dog Among Diplomats) will be out in a few days.

This book will appeal to mystery and animal lovers, as well as anyone who is just looking for a good novel to pick up that won't end up sitting unread on their night stand for weeks..

One of my favorite lines: "If Imogen's disappearance had taught me anything it was this: men need to be loved or they will slowly and invariably go bad. A perfectly adequate male in his twenties will become, in little more than a decade--if unloved--a strange creature statistically prone to die of an ingrown toenail in an apartment crammed with hoarded newspapers and unwashed cereal bowls."
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 2 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780440243632
Author:
Englert, J F
Publisher:
Dell Publishing Company
Author:
Englert, Jonathan
Author:
Anglert, J. F.
Author:
Englert, J. F.
Subject:
General
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Dogs
Subject:
Murder
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Copyright:
2007
Publication Date:
May 2007
Binding:
Mass Market Paperbound
Language:
English
Pages:
271
Dimensions:
6.88x4.26x.81 in. .32 lbs.
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $4.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Like a Dog with a Bone

    Charles Lee Kelley
  2. $3.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Cat Pay the Devil (Joe Grey Mysteries)

    Shirley R Murphy
  3. $4.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Puss 'n Cahoots (Mrs. Murphy Mysteries)

    Rita Mae Brown
  4. $9.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Don't Point That Thing at Me: A Charlie Mortdecai Mystery

    Kyril Bonfiglioli
  5. $3.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Tell No One

    Harlan Coben
  6. $4.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Suspect (Vintage Crime/Black Lizaed)

    Michael Robotham
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.