Waiting on Wednesday: A Dog at Sea by J. F. Englert

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that are eagerly anticipated.

My "can't-wait-to-read" selection for this week is:

A Dog at Sea by J. F. Englert

I first heard about J. F. Englert's A Bull Moose Dog Run Mystery Series last year through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. The series is about Randolph, a black Lab who solves murders. "Well," I thought to myself, "this sounds like a series written just for me!" (I have a black Lab of my own, Mame, named after one the greatest literary creations, Auntie Mame) I ordered the first installment, A Dog About Town, and loved it. I picked up the next installment, A Dog Among Diplomats, as soon at it was released. J. F. Englert was even gracious enough to let me interview him for From My Bookshelf...

From Amazon for A Dog About Town:

"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…."

And also from Amazon for A Dog Among Diplomats:

"He reads Proust. Surfs the net. Is the soul of diplomacy.
And when it comes to solving crime,
Randolph is the dog for the job.

Murder has come to Manhattan’s East Village. And when detectives call twenty-something artist Harry to the scene, his Labrador, Randolph, instantly smells a rat. Why? Because Harry’s missing almost-fiancée—and Randolph’s beloved mistress—has been implicated in the murder, which has ties to the U.N. While Harry looks to the spirit world for answers, careening between terror and wild hope that Imogen is alive, Randolph goes into detective mode, using his superior Lab brain—2.3 pounds of smoothly functioning gray matter—to surf the Net, track down clues, and even land a job as a “therapy” dog to a depressed diplomat. Suddenly the brainy, book-loving Lab has done the impossible: he’s penetrated the shadowy corridors of the U.N. (which boasts the most vicious, backbiting dog run in the city) in search of a killer. Now it will take all of Randolph’s cunning to protect Harry, clear Imogen’s name, solve the crime—and stay alive long enough to enjoy his upcoming birthday."

The latest installment, A Dog at Sea, will be released later this year from Dell Publishing. According to Amazon, the release date is October 27, 2009, and according to Dell's website the release date is December 29, 2009.