Dog Sleuths Even Grok Has to Admire
Grok is not a dog person, er, dog cat?
He finds them noisy, overly enthusiastic, and suspiciously eager to please humans.
But every once in a while, a dog comes along with a skill even Grok has to respect.
Daisy from Erin Johnson’s Pretty Little Fliers
Daisy is the canine partner of police officer Peter Flint, and she has one particularly useful talent: she can sniff out lies.
That alone would get Grok’s attention.
In Pretty Little Fliers, Jolene Hartgrave is hired to get testimony from a parakeet that witnessed a suspicious death. Jolene can communicate with animals, and she teams up with Peter and Daisy to investigate. Daisy’s lie-detecting ability gives the team another way to separate truth from fiction.
I like the overlap with Amanda’s world.
Jolene can talk to animals. Amanda’s connection with Grok works differently, but both women can receive information from animals that most people around them simply can’t.
And Daisy brings something useful to the investigation herself.
Grok would probably refuse to call her impressive.
He might concede adequately trained.
Rex Harrison from Steve Higgs’s Albert Smith’s Culinary Capers
Then there’s Rex Harrison.
Rex is a failed police dog who travels with retired detective Albert Smith as they investigate mysteries around Britain. Steve Higgs’s own descriptions repeatedly put Rex right in the middle of the investigation, using his nose and instincts to help Albert follow the clues.
In Death of a Yorkshire Pudding, Higgs even describes Rex as having his “nose to the ground” and being able to solve the crime—provided he can get the humans there in time.
That sounds very familiar.
A good animal sidekick doesn’t just sit beside the sleuth.
They notice things.
They have skills the human investigator doesn’t.
They occasionally reach the answer first.
And sometimes their biggest challenge is getting the humans to catch up.
Grok understands that problem perfectly.
He would still prefer that neither Daisy nor Rex visit Ocean Wood.
