When I was doing my M.A. program in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University, in Pittsburgh, PA, I took a lot of notes. One note in particular I underlined and still have. It reads: “Never kill the dog.”
If you have read Peril at the Point, the first book in the Lamb’s Bay Mysteries, you know by now that my main character Hilly has a Golden Retriever named Heidi. If you know me and my stories, you’ll know that there’s usually a dog in there somewhere.
I happen to love dogs. I’ve had two great dogs in my life that sadly are no longer with us. I actually have three “grand dogs” and I love visiting with them. My preference is for a large dog, but sadly my small home is not big enough to accommodate me, my books and a large animal. So the visits from the “grand dogs” give me my “doggie” fix.
Don’t get me wrong. I love cats, too, and I have had several over the years since childhood only to finally discover that I had a cat allergy. So, sorry you beautiful felines but I have to love you from afar. But be assured I really would like to pick you up and cuddle you.
Many sleuths in cozy mysteries have a pet animal – a kind of sidekick. If they happen to be witches or paranormal creatures, their animal sidekick is usually a “familiar”—an animal–which often talks and assists with solving the case in question.
Why an animal? They sense things we don’t and they protect us. In Peril at the Point, Heidi takes a bullet while chasing a burglar out of Hilly’s home. Hilly, who is sleeping and does not have an alarm system, could have been murdered. Luckily, Heidi picked up on the signs that there was an intruder and barked her warning as she went to chase him out of the house.
No, I did not kill the dog – she just needed stitches where the bullet grazed her ear.
Heidi is also Hilly’s companion on her long beach rambles where Hilly mulls over aspects of the cases she gets involved in. Heidi enjoys the walks, but is always alert to any dangers or stalkers.
Hilly has had a few tough breaks in her life – the death of a child, losing her father to cancer and betrayal by the man she lived with for a good number of years. She’s become hard and self-reliant. Heidi takes the edge off all that. Once Hilly lets the dog into her life, she falls for her like the proverbial ton of bricks. Heidi brings out a side of Hilly she had forgotten existed.
Having to battle her former boyfriend for ownership of the dog forces Hilly to finally stand up to him. How?
You’ll have to read Book 2, Malice at the Mansion, due out in a couple of weeks just in time for summer reading season.
