Sleeping Dog: A Leo and Serendipity Mystery - Softcover

When teen Serendipity Dahlquist’s dog is snatched, she’s determined not to lose her hold on this one memento of her dead father. Brushing off her soap star grandmother, she skates across town to hire Leo “the Hound” Bloodworth to find Groucho. The crusty PI seems already to have stepped into some caca through his slimy partner. Each hot in pursuit of a personal agenda, Serendipity and Leo then cruise past the girl’s appalling family, the Mexican mafia, some ancient history, some modern mayhem, and what can only be the Hollywood/Los Angeles culture, to a surprise convergence.

For a first novel, Sleeping Dog not only braves a risky concept, it displays rare control. The idea of a detecting team is as old as the genre. What author Dick Lochte does is play with the form by having each detective—the aging private eye, the precocious teen—tell the tale. Each has written a book about the case and rushed to publication, leaving the savvy house acquiring both manuscripts to combine them in a single volume. The reader gains all the fun of seeing the case from different, often contradictory, perspectives. It’s even better when the author salts the situational humor with riffs on the genre, welcoming the reader as a savvy partner in the joke.

Leo to Serendipity: “That happens when you’ve been dead awhile. Rictus. Some writer called it ‘the ivory grin’ which may be a little melodramatic but says it all.”

Credit Dick Lochte’s brilliant characterizations as well as knowing LA inside out for the Sleeping Dog’s critical success. Published in 1985, it won the Nero Wolfe Award and was nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards. In 1999, the Independent Mystery Booksellers’s named it one of their 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Poisoned Pen Press will republish the only sequel, Laughing Dog.

The Nero Wolfe Award Winner, Shamus Award Nominee, Edgar Award Nominee Author of a New York Times Book of the Year, author of one of the 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century chosen by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association Dick Lochte burst onto the crime-writing scene with Sleeping Dog and has continued to take the genre by storm ever since, becoming a Los Angeles Times bestselling author of 10 books of crime fiction and earning the highest honors a writer can attain in the mystery genre. Sleeping Dog chronicles the adventures of a precocious 14-year-old girl and a weary Los Angeles private detective as they search for the girl’s mother across California. It has become one of the most acclaimed crime novels ever. Lochte’s detective masterpiece was nominated for the Edgar, Shamus and Anthony Awards and took home the Nero Wolfe Award. It was also named a New York Times a “Notable Book of the Year” and was selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers of America as one of the 100 Most Popular Mystery Novels of the Century. Fans and critics alike were equally excited and impressed by the thrilling sequel, Laughing Dog. Both novels are published by Brash Books, along with his terrific short story Rappin’ Dog. Lochte’s many other popular crime novels, including his Terry Manion series and his Billy Blessing mysteries written with Al Roker, are every bit as masterful. His novel Blue In the Night was named one of the top five crime novels of the year by the Private Eye Writers of America. He’s not just a crime fiction author, either. Lochte is also a successful screenwriter, penning scripts for actors like Jodie Foster and Roger Moore, and he is a highly respected mystery critic and historian, whose many reviews and commentaries have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Mystery Scene, and other publications. Be sure to look for his insightful commentary and reviews on the Brash Books blog.