Animals in Mysteries II: Volume 39, No. 4, Winter 2023

Animals in Mysteries II
Volume 39, No. 4, Winter 2023

Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as a downloadable PDF.

This is the second issue of Animal Mysteries in Volume 39 of Mystery Readers Journal. The first is still available (Animal Mysteries I- Volume 39:3). Be sure to order both (or they will both come with your 2023 subscription). 

Animals figure in so many different ways in mysteries. They’re pets, they’re sidekicks, they’re victims, they’re suspects, and they’re often main characters. And not just that, there’s a huge variety of animals, not just dogs and cats. I think you’ll find the articles and author essays in this issue illuminating—and fun! 

In this issue of Mystery Readers Journal you’ll find articles, author essays, and reviews of new and older mystery novels that feature animals. Because we had a large number of contributors, we split the themed issues into two. So thanks to everyone who contributed to this theme. 

And, FYI, we had two other Animals in Mysteries themed issues: 

Fall 2011 (27:3). mysteryreaders.org/journal-index/animal-mysteries/ 

Winter 1998 (14:4) mysteryreaders.org/journal-index/animal-mysteries-2/.  

Check out the table of contents for the past issues. Both are still available. You’ll want to have a complete set!

If you're a PDF subscriber, you should have received download instructions yesterday. Hard copy subscription copies should be received this week. International subscribers will receive their issues within two weeks. PDF Contributor copies will go out this week. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this amazing issue.

Animals in Mysteries II

Volume 39, No. 4, Winter 2023

Buy this back issue! Available in hardcopy or as a downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

• Canines and Crimes in the Golden Age of Mysteries by Patricia Cook
• From Alaska to Maine: Wolf Companions Help Solve Mysteries by Judith Ayn
• A Clowder of Cat Mysteries by Aubrey Nye Hamilton
• Agatha’s Ark: Animals in Classic Crime Fiction by Kate Jackson

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• Murder, She Growls… or How Jessica Fletcher Brought Pets Into My Mystery Series by Jinny Alexander
• Doggie Partners by Paul A. Barra
• Horses? Why Horses? by J. F. Benedetto
• Dogs, What They See, What They Know by Rona Bell
• The Case For Dogs in Crime Fiction by Valerie Burns
• For the Love of Dogs by Tracy Carter
• It Was All a Plot to Write about Horses by Celeste Connally
• Looking Behind the Curtain of Writing Mysteries With a Dog by DK Coutant
• Lobsters, Eels, and Sharks, Oh My! by Charlene D’Avanzo
• Why My Mysteries Feature Animals and Yours Should, Too by Debbie De Louise
• So, Who’s Feeding the Dog? by Christine Falcone
• The Amazing Skills of Dogs by Janet Finsilver
• Marshmallow and Babalu by Kaye George
• A Most Improbable Amateur Detective by Hal Glatzer
• Discovering RahRah by Debra H. Goldstein
• Life Is Better With Critters by Carolyn Haines
• Absolutely, Positively the Most Awkward Question About Animal Sidekicks by David Handler
• The Joy of Animals in Mysteries by Thonie Hevron
• Stories and Dogs and Wildlife—Oh, My! by Linda O. Johnston
• All Kinds of Kitties by Diane Kelly
• Stand Down, The Lido Libretto, and More by Gay Toltl Kinman
• A Menagerie of Mayhem by Tim Maleeny
• What’s the Mystery About Therapy Dogs? by James L’Etoile
• Readers Root for the Vulnerable by Larry Maness
• Albert is Gone and Boris is Here by Susan McCormick
• A Writer’s Pals by Larry Mild
• Send in the Dogs and Cats by Margaret Morse
• When Cats Creep Into the Story by Ann Parker
• Why My Top Dog Is a Fish by Korina Moss
• Not All Best Friends Are Human by Sandra Murphy
• The Mysterious Kinship of Animal Lovers by Sandra Parshall
• Sniffing Out The Clues by Neil Plakcy
• Anaphylaxis Is My Middle Name by Mindy Quigley
• Mixing Kitties and Conflict in Crime Fiction by Merrilee Robson
• Writing Mysteries and Murders at a Zoo (with Caution and Care for the Animals) by Marcia Rosen
• Animals and Books and Life by Philipp Schott
• Murder and the Missing (French) Dog by Susan C. Shea
• Sheep (and Other Critter) Thrills by Leonie Swann
• Paws, Laws, and Probable Cause by Gabriel Valjan

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Kathy Boone Reel, L.J. Roberts, Lucinda Surber, Lesa Holstine
• Crime Seen: Dog Stars by Kate Derie
• Animal Criminals and Detectives by Cathy Pickens
• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

ANIMAL MYSTERIES, Volume 14: No. 4, Winter 1998

You all know we're having two issues of Mystery Readers Journal focusing on Animals in Mysteries this year. One of the past issues (Volume 27, No. 3, 2011) is available, but Volume 14, No. 4 has not been. Now it is thanks to Kate Derie. She created a downloadable PDF of Animal Mysteries: Volume 14: No 4 from 1998. That means we have all the Animal Mysteries issues available for purchase as PDFs. Wowza. 

Kate Derie, Associate Editor, writes, 

Since we’re doing another issue of Animals, I thought I would go all the way back to the 1998 issue on Animal Mysteries and produce a PDF. These old ones are getting harder and harder to remaster. This one was originally done in Word 5.1 (!!!), with a weird layout to make it easy to cut and paste for the printer. I had to pull out my 2003 PowerBook, which still runs 5.1, in order to straighten things out. But it’s fun, in a nerdy kind of way.

Thanks, Kate! How fabulous! 

Below find the Cover and Table of Contents with a link for ordering Animal Mysteries, Volume 14, No. 4, 1998.

Animals in Mysteries II, Volume 39:4 will be out in December.

Animal Mysteries issues available as PDFs now. 

Volume 39, No. 3: Animals in Mysteries I, 2023

Volume 27, No. 3: Animal Mysteries, 2011

Volume 14, No. 4: Animal Mysteries, 1998

Animal Mysteries

Volume 14, No. 4, Winter 1998-99

Buy this back issue! Available as a downloadable PDF.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The First Felines of Mystery by Carolyn Wheat
• Strange Mix: Man and Dog by Roberta Ann Henrich
• Rita Mae Brown: A “Fabulous Fabricator of Felonious Feline Fiction”? by Nicole Décuré
• Animal Armaments by Jim Doherty
• Look What Lassie Found! by Beth Fedyn
• Equine Mysteries from a Horse-Breeder’s Perspective by Marsha Valance
• “A Dog’s a Dog for a’ That” by Tom Kreitzberg
• The One Taboo in Mystery Writing by Dee Burton

THE WRITERS WRITE

• Watch the Cat for Clues by Marian Babson
• Partners: One’s Human, The Other Isn’t by Carol Lea Benjamin
• The Best Job in the World by Laurien Berenson
• The Night Monsieur Pamplemousse Met Pommes Frites by Michael Bond
• The Little Rabbit That Could by Margaret Chittenden
• Midnight Louie, P.I.: The Cat and I by Carole Nelson Douglas
• Mystery Animals by Michael Allen Dymmoch
• Animal “Mythteries” by Jacqueline Fiedler
• Get Real! by Jan Gleiter
• Why Write Animal Mysteries? by Patricia Guiver
• The Dog It Was That Lived by Timothy Heald
• Not In My Back Yard! by Sue Henry
• Man’s Best Friend… and the Author’s, Too by Jonnie Jacobs
• What’s a Life—or a Story—Without a Dog? by Janet LaPierre
• If I Hadn’t Met a Bloodhound… by Virginia Lanier
• Rover of Rover’s Tales by Michael Z. Lewin
• Rover à Clef by Laura Lippman
• I Brake For Animals by Allana Martin
• The Role of Cats in Mysteries… and Everything Else in My Life by Alex Matthews
• The Action Never Stops by Karin McQuillan
• No Bones About It by Donna Huston Murray
• Going to the Dogs by Leslie O’Kane
• Animals As Metaphors by Lillian Roberts
• How the Dog Got In My Mysteries by Lora Roberts
• Cat Got My Tongue—and Heart by Alan Russell
• Beauty of the Beast: Mankind’s Mysterious Relationship with the Animal Kingdom by Barbara Sohmers
• Animalmania by Jessica Speart

COLUMNS

• MYSTERY IN RETROSPECT: Reviews by Carol Harper, Lucille Gordon, Nancy Gordon, Harriet Klausner
• A MYSTERY READER ABROAD: In Transition by Carol Harper
• BRITISH FICTION: Cats and Dorothy L. Sayers by Philip L. Scowcroft
• IN SHORT: Animal Form by Marvin Lachman
• JUST JUVENILES: The Beasts and the Children by Nancy Roberts
• MRI Mayhem by Janet A. Rudolph
• From the Editor’s Desk by Janet A. Rudolph

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Update & New Call for Articles: Mystery Readers Journal: Animals in Mysteries

UPDATE: MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: ANIMALS IN MYSTERIES 

Two Issues in 2023 (39:3 & 39:4)

Animals in Mysteries (I & II) 

We had an overwhelming number of articles, author essays, and reviews for the Animals in Mysteries theme for Mystery Readers Journal that we needed to divide the material into two issues (Volume 39: 3 & 4). Thanks to all who contributed to these issues. Volume 39:3 will be out in October. This means that if you didn't send an article, you still have time. Deadline for Animals in Mysteries II is October 15. Send to: janet @ mysteryreaders. org 

Contributors: If your accepted article or review does not appear in #1, it will appear in #2. We have a limited number of space left in issue #2 for more articles, so if you want to send an author essay or article send it by October 15. Author essays are first person, about yourself, your books, and the "Animals in Mysteries" connection. Treat this author essay as if you're chatting with friends and other writers in the bar or cafe or on Zoom about your work and the unique "Animal" connection in your mysteries. Add title and 2-3 sentence bio/tagline. Subject Line: Animals in Mysteries 

Deadline for Animal Mysteries II: October 15, 2023: Send to: Janet Rudolph, Editor. janet @ mysteryreaders. org 

 SUBSCRIBERS and OTHERS: PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN OUR THEMES FOR 2023. 

SUBSCRIBE TO MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: 2023 (African Mysteries; Hobbies & Crafts in Mysteries; Animals in Mysteries I; Animals in Mysteries II.) 

Many back issues of Mystery Readers Journal are available as single copies in hardcopy or PDF. 

Historical Mysteries I: Available as PDF or Hardcopy. 

Private Eyes I & Private Eyes II : Available as PDF or Hardcopy. 

Environmental Mysteries: Available as PDF or Hardcopy. 

Irish Mysteries: Available as PDF and Hardcopy. 

Senior Sleuths: Available as PDF or Hardcopy. 

Legal Mysteries: Available as PDF or Hardcopy. 

Call for Articles for 2023 (Volume 39): Animals in Mysteries II. 2024: Southern California in Mysteries (Volume 40). More themes to come. 

Have titles, articles or suggestions for these upcoming issues? Want to write an Author! Author! essay?email Janet Rudolph 

BLOGS 

Mystery Fanfare 

Dying for Chocolate 

 www.twitter.com/Janet Rudolph 

Janet Rudolph on Facebook 

janet @ mysteryreaders.org 

*** 

Left Coast Crime Convention: Seattle Shakedown. https://leftcoastcrime.org/2024/

Westminster Dog Show, Valentine's Day, & Cupid's Canine Cookies

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, now in its 141st year, starts this weekend with Masters Agility Championship and AKC Meet the Breeds. Then on Monday and Tuesday comes the 'real' show which will also be streaming (some on TV, too). In honor of the Dog Show and Valentine's Day, and keeping in mind how important dogs can be to mysteries and in our lives, I am posting a recipe for Valentine's Day Dog Treats that you can make for your 'special' friend.

Just an FYI, I watch the Westminster Dog show on TV, and so does Topper. It's so funny! He doesn't care much for other TV shows, but this one always has him mesmerized. Perhaps memories of his early days as a show dog before I adopted him? Rosie, however, having been a street dog is not amused.

The illustration above is from Tyler Hmphreys at TylersWorkshop (posted with permission). Here's a link to the etsy site where you can buy this card or order lots of other cards, pictures and sculptures. I love this Valentine's Day Card because it reminds me of Topper and Belle au Bois Dormant.

And, to keep this post to a mystery theme, here's a link to the Mystery Readers Journal Animals in Mysteries issue. Available as a PDF or hardcopy. Here's a link to an article by Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet the Dog series.

Valentine's Day is all about chocolate. If you want Chocolate People treats, here's a link to Walker's Shortbread Scottie Dogs with Muddy Boots. This is a HUMANS ONLY RECIPE. Be sure and keep the chocolate away from Fido. I posted an article at Halloween about Dogs, Chocolate and Halloween Treats: A Dangerous Combination, and the same warnings are in effect for Valentine's Day.

Finally a Valentine's Day Dog Treat Recipe for your four footed faithful friend. 

Cupid’s Canine Cookies 
From the Home Alone Website, recipe by Ariel Waters (my comments are in italics)
Warning: Don't overfeed

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 to 35 minutes
Yield: 2 pounds of heart-shaped dog treats

Ingredients
5 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup beef broth  (choose one with no or low salt or make your own)
1/2 cup corn oil
2 eggs
+ heart-shaped cookie cutter  (of course I've got plenty of these)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet using 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.
With clean hands, roll dough out to 1/4 to 1/2-inch thickness and use heart-shaped cookie cutter in honor of the holiday. If you have a larger dog (or a piggy dog like Topper) use a larger heart-shaped cookie cutter, Perforate the cookies with a fork down the middle to break apart easily after baking. Instead of a cookie cutter, you can always roll the dough into 1/2 to 2-inch balls and place them one inch apart on the greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 25 - 35 minutes until they turn golden brown. Baking times will vary based on size of treats,  altitude, and your oven.
Cool cookies on wire racks, as far away from your dog as possible.

After treating your dog, store the rest in the refrigerator or freeze until the next visit from Cupid.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rosie and Topper

Stephen Huneck, Dog Mountain

Westminster Dog Show, Valentine's Day, & Cupid's Canine Cookies

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, now in its 138th year, will be held February10-11. In honor of the Dog Show and Valentine's Day, and keeping in mind how important dogs can be to mysteries and in our lives, I am posting a recipe for Valentine's Day Dog Treats that you can make for your 'special' friend.

Just an FYI, I watch the Westminster Dog show on TV, and so does Topper. It's so funny! He doesn't care much for other TV shows, but this one always has him mesmerized. Perhaps memories of his early days as a show dog before I adopted him? It will be interesting to see if Rosie, our latest golden retriever rescue, also watches. I'll keep you posted!

The illustration above is from Tyler Hmphreys at TylersWorkshop (posted with permission). Here's a link to the etsy site where you can buy this card or order lots of other cards, pictures and sculptures. I love this Valentine's Day Card because it reminds me of Topper and Belle au Bois Dormant.

And, to keep this post to a mystery theme, here's a link to the Mystery Readers Journal Animals in Mysteries issue. Available as a PDF or hardcopy. Here's a link to an article by Spencer Quinn, author of the Chet the Dog series.

Valentine's Day is all about chocolate. If you want Chocolate People treats, here's a link to Walker's Shortbread Scottie Dogs with Muddy Boots. This is a HUMANS ONLY RECIPE. Be sure and keep the chocolate away from Fido. I posted an article at Halloween about Animals and Halloween Treats, and the same warnings are in effect for Valentine's Day.

Finally the Valentine's Day Dog Treat Recipe for your four footed faithful friend. 

Cupid’s Canine Cookies 
From the Home Alone Website, recipe by Ariel Waters (my comments are in italics)
Warning: Don't overfeed

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 to 35 minutes
Yield: 2 pounds of heart-shaped dog treats

Ingredients
5 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup beef broth  (choose one with no or low salt or make your own)
1/2 cup corn oil
2 eggs
+ heart-shaped cookie cutter  (of course I've got plenty of these)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet using 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.
3. With clean hands, roll dough out to 1/4 to 1/2-inch thickness and use heart-shaped cookie cutter in honor of the holiday. If you have a larger dog (or a piggy dog like Topper) use a larger heart-shaped cookie cutter, Perforate the cookies with a fork down the middle to break apart easily after baking. Instead of a cookie cutter, you can always roll the dough into 1/2 to 2-inch balls and place them one inch apart on the greased cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes until they turn golden brown. Baking times will vary based on size of treats,  altitude, and your oven.
5. Cool cookies on wire racks, as far away from your dog as possible.

After treating your dog, store the rest in the refrigerator or freeze until the next visit from Cupid.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rosie and Topper

Stephen Huneck, Dog Mountain

Animals in and Out of Books by Deborah Crombie: National Pet Day

April 11 is National Pet Day.  Topper, my golden retriever, will have a special treat in honor of the day. The cats--well, they think every day is Pet Day. They're cats.

Mystery Readers Journal has had several issues devoted to Animal Mysteries. The last issue devoted to Animal Mysteries (Volume 27:3 2011) is still available as hardcopy or PDF. Go here for the Table of Contents and ordering info.

The following is an Author! Author! essay that appeared in that issue.  Deborah Crombie writes the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James crime novels set in the United Kingdom. Latest in the series is No Mark Upon Her (Wm. Morrow). Crombie lives in North Texas with her husband, German shepherds, and cats, and divides her time between Texas and Britain.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Animals In and Out of Books

The German shepherds were my husband's fault.

When he was very small, his parents kept a German shepherd for friends who had to go overseas for a summer. My dear hubby adored the dog, which was very gentle with him, as shepherds usually are with small children. He would put his hand in the dog's mouth and pretend he was a lion tamer. (I can imagine the little blond imp shrieking with glee at his daring, and it has just occurred to me that my fictional little blond imp, Toby, might bear some relation to my real-life husband as a child.)

The German shepherd went back to his owners, and my husband grew up with other dogs; a bloodhound, a boxer. But none replaced the German shepherd in his imagination or affections.

I, on the other hand, did not grow up in a pet-friendly household. My mother did not care for cats. She was afraid of big dogs—she'd been bitten as a small child—and above all she didn't want anything in the house that shed!

When I was nine, my parents gave in to what I'm sure was my incessant and annoying whining, and took in an adult toy poodle (no shedding) from some elderly relatives who could no longer care for her. Oh, dear, oh dear. The disappointment on all sides. The poor dog, Jolie, had been raised as a faux-human, and never adjusted to the deterioration in her circumstances, although she bore with us bravely for a good many years.

But this dog, who didn't care for children and had never been taught to play, was not Lassie or Rin Tin Tin, and my heart was broken. I consoled myself by reading books about imaginary dogs, and spending hours poring over dog encyclopedias trying to decide on the perfect pup.

By my late teens, I'd rebelled (well, I was still living at home so perhaps not all that rebellious) and had finally talked my mother into letting me adopt a kitten, a six-week-old tiny orange ball of fluff. That sweet little thing grew up into the cat from hell, which terrorized everyone and everything in the household, including my second acquisition, an enormous and completely goofy Great Dane.

Eventually I went away to college, the Great Dane went to a family with small children and a big yard, and the hellcat stayed with me until I moved to England a number of years later.

And I've continued ever since to make up for my pet-free childhood. There have been a great number of cats—one, a purebred Himalayan, brought back from England. I was living in Chester at the time with my then-husband, and we'd found the kitten in a newspaper advert. Her breeders lived in a farmhouse near the Cheshire market town of Nantwich. Here reality bleeds into fiction again—that farmhouse, and that town, made such an impression on me that a decade later they became the models for Duncan Kincaid's parents' home.

Then came the dogs. My first dog as an adult was a buff cocker spaniel, bought as a surprise for our seven-year-old daughter. His name was Taffy. He had every bad trait that plagues cocker spaniels. I adored him, and he me. We lost him to cancer when he was nine, and we found we couldn't bear being dogless, even for a week.

I'd had visions of an English cocker, perhaps a bi-color or a blue roan, but my husband had his heart set on a German shepherd, and so Hallie came into our lives. She's thirteen now, and frail. Our younger shepherd, Neela, is five, and they have been everything that that long-ago little girl imagined as the ideal dog—brave, loving, loyal, smart, playful, and funny. Oh, and we live in a sea of dog hair.

Gemma, of course, got the blue roan cocker spaniel, Geordie, and he is the dog of her heart. Kit's Tess, on the other hand, the little foundling who might be a Norfolk terrier, sprang out of nowhere, just as dogs sometimes do in real life. A frightened boy seeking shelter and solace found a frightened little dog behind a supermarket, and a match was made.

Before the fictional dogs, however, Duncan acquired a cat, Sid, a big black fellow who had belonged to his late friend and neighbor in Hampstead.
Having resisted the temptation to give my primary fictional characters German shepherds, I've given the GSDs walk-on roles in a number of novels. Dogs and cats weave in and out of all the books in the series. I notice I've had a particular fondness for black Labrador retrievers, which pop up in a number of books. Duncan's parents have a lovely border collie. One of my favorite fictional dogs has been Mo, the English mastiff in Where Memories Lie (Wm. Morrow, 2008). Mo was modeled on a real English mastiff named Big Mo. Big Mo's owners bid at a Humane Society auction for the opportunity to have him appear in a book, and I hope I did him justice. I certainly enjoyed spending a book with him, drool and all. I particularly love the scene where he eats the tub of ice cream.

But if the working dogs have had minor roles in the previous books, they get their due in No Mark Upon Her. Finn, a black Lab, and Tosh, a female German shepherd who just happens to look exactly like our Neela, are search and rescue dogs with a volunteer organization I've called Thames Valley SAR in the book. TVSAR is based on a real volunteer group called Berkshire SAR, whose members were extremely helpful when I was researching the book. They allowed me to handle a search dog in training exercises, and to hide and pretend to be a victim. (In the dark, in the mud, I might add. All the more fun.)

I have tremendous respect for both dogs and handlers, and if the dogs in my book are heroes, their real-life counterparts are more so.

Will there be dogs and cats in future books? Undoubtedly. I can't imagine my own life without their companionship, and my characters deserve to be equally blessed.

There is one caveat, however—the dogs and cats are not allowed to talk.

Animals in Mysteries: Mystery Readers Journal (Volume 27:3)

 

The latest issue of Mystery Readers Journal: Animal Mysteries (Volume 27:3) is now available to PDF subscribers. Hardcopy is still at the printer, but should be out late next week. You're going to love this issue. Lots of dogs and cats, but some birds, pigs, horses and insects. O.K. they're not animals, but they fit the theme! Here's the Table of Contents with links to a few articles:

MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL: ANIMAL MYSTERIES (Volume 27:3)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Bringing Up Asta by Nicolas Pillai

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

• Animal Magnetism by Esri Allbritten
• The Animal Connection by Donna Ball
• The Rewards of Dogged Determination by Cynthia Baxter
• The Aristocats by Jennie Bentley
• Not Another Cat Mystery! by Ali Brandon
• Watching Eagles Soar by Margaret Coel
• When Wild Pigs Fly by Bill Crider
• Animals In and Out of Books by Deborah Crombie
• The Mysterious Dog by Evelyn David
• Midnight Louie, Feline P.I. Extraordinaire by Carole Nelson Douglas
• But How Did the Dog Get Out? by Eileen Dreyer
• Sniffing Out a Clue by Carola Dunn
• Don't Mention The Dog—Why I Am Not An Animal Mystery Writer by J.F. Englert
• Swine, Rain or Shine by Barbara Gregorich
• How I Became a Crazy Cat Lady by Rebecca M. Hale
• Pets and Mysteries: An Amazing Alliance by Linda O. Johnston
• Something Whiskered This Way Comes by Sofie Kelly
• No Dogs Will Die by Vicki Lane
• Zoo-dunnits: Where Cats Don't Solve Murders, They Commit Them by Ann Littlewood
• Humans and Other Animals by Linda Lombardi
• Murder Tooth and Claw by Michael Allan Mallory
• Gift of the Horse by John McEvoy
• Lions and Tigers and Tarantulas, Oh, My! by John Miller
• The Tell-Tale Cat by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
• The Feline Art of Murder by Lynne Murray
• Crossword: Mew Is for Murder by Verna Suit
• An Abundance of Bears by Marilyn Meredith
• Can a Dog Really Solve a Murder? by Neil Plakcy
• Inside of a Dog... by Spencer Quinn
• A Dog From Europe, A Cat From Beyond by Elena Santangelo
• A Dog's Eye View by Clea Simon
• A World Full of Animals by Joanna Campbell Slan
• Winged Obsession by Jessica Speart
• Animals are Characters... Literally by Kari Lee Townsend
• Koalas, Anteaters, and Llamas by Betty Webb
• Channeling a Sleuthing Dog by Peggy Webb
• Gone to the Dogs by Sue Owens Wright

COLUMNS

• Mystery in Retrospect: Reviews by Sandie Herron, Lesa Holstine, L.J. Roberts
• In Short: Animal Misbehavior by Marvin Lachman
• Crim-animals: Real Animals and Their Crimes by Cathy Pickens
• Crime Seen: Close-Up on Animals by Kate Derie
• Children's Hour: Animal Mysteries by Gay Toltl Kinman
• Animals and Crime Fiction: Some (Mainly) British Examples by Philip Scowcroft
  
• From the Editor's Desk by Janet A. Rudolph