The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs: A Mystery [Hardcover]

Richard Yancey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Highly Effective Detective | Publication Date: August 19, 2008

From the critically acclaimed author of The Highly Effective Detective comes this deliciously funny follow-up featuring the lovable but bumbling P.I. Teddy Ruzak.

After the state shuts him down for practicing detection without a license, Teddy thinks his investigating days are over. Then he discovers the body of a man outside his office, a homeless man whom he had befriended just the day before.

Teddy suspects foul play, but the police think he's barking up the wrong tree. Then his normal befuddlement is exponentially enhanced by two very unexpected--and potentially very dangerous--visitors from the pound.

With his signature wit and gripping suspense, Richard Yancey has written yet another irresistible page-turner. It is sure to win him and Teddy Ruzak a whole new series of fans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In Yancey's delightful second mystery to feature lovably inept Teddy Ruzak (after 2006's The Highly Effective Detective), Teddy fails the Tennessee PI licensing exam for the second time and is served notice that he can no longer work as a PI. After shutting down the office, Teddy spots a homeless man on the street and, on impulse, gives him his hat. The next day Teddy finds the man beaten to death in an alley behind his office building. Determined to dig up the truth, Teddy, in his inimitable way, follows the trail. Along the way to a most surprising solution, he finds his life complicated by two unexpected new acquaintances from the dog pound, one four-legged and the other a young woman who finds Teddy very attractive. Yancey has given Teddy a distinctive voice—wry, rambling and self-reflective—that will endear this surprisingly effective bumbler to all kinds of mystery readers. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Yancey follows up his delightful Highly Effective Detective (2006) with this equally delightful sequel. Knoxville, Tennessee, private eye Teddy Ruzak is experiencing a slight professional hiccup: he can’t seem to pass the PI exam, and the state is demanding he shut down his business. But there are bills to pay, and, oh yes, he’s just discovered the body of a murdered man outside his building. Sure, the cops don’t think the man was murdered, but Teddy is convinced they’re wrong, and he’s going to prove it. There’s just the slight problem of how to solve a murder when you’re an unlicensed private eye without a clue. If anything, this second Ruzak novel is even funnier than the first, and the first was plenty funny. This one’s humor is a bit broader, the characters and dialogue a bit wackier. Readers of the first book who noted a similarity to Donald E. Westlake or (to a lesser degree) Carl Hiaasen will see here that their instincts were on the money: Yancey deserves mention with the wackiest of today’s comic crime novelists. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (August 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312347537
• ISBN-13: 978-0312347536
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Yancey is the author several books for adults, including The Highly Effective Detective. He is also a produced playwright and former theater critic. He lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and three sons. Visit him at www.rickyancey.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "Noir-lit" anti-hardboiled detective tale, August 20, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs: A Mystery (Hardcover)

For the second time Teddy Ruzak fails the Tennessee private investigator licensing exam; he also failed the police exam. Already despondent, he knows the two strikes your out state rule. He is notified to shut his practice.

Teddy leaves his office only to notice a homeless man just outside; he gives the man his hat. The next day, Teddy returns to his office only to see the same man dead in the ally behind the building. Someone beat the homeless person to death. Rationalizing that he does not have a paying customer so he is breaking no violations, Teddy begins to investigate even as he is joined by Archie the clever sleuthing canine so intelligent he was residing at the pound and the pound desk assistant U of T philosophy student Amanda.

Teddy is terrific in his second appearance as THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DETECTIVE who bumbles his way through the investigation. The story line is driven by Teddy who's "Noir-lit" asides and his sleuthing companions make for an amusing Tennessee waltz as he struggles to solve the case, feed the dog, and get the woman. His successful ineptitude makes for a fun anti-hardboiled detective.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining light mystery, December 1, 2008

By 

Robert H. Nunnally Jr. "gurdonark" (Allen, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs: A Mystery (Hardcover)

Teddy Ruzak, the "Highly Effective Detective", has a bent for musing on philosophy, a knack for falling short of his ambitions, and a keen and refined ability to take what appear to be unadventurous circumstances and make them fraught with unexpected complexities. He also has a deadpan narrative style which conceals, and then adds nuance to, his ability to unravel a mystery. I had not read the introductory volume in this series, but found I could easily find my way into the Ruzakverse.
Author Rick Yancey takes delicious liberties with the detective genre, creating a light, comic detective novel which is an enjoyable read. This is (and this satirizes) the type of mystery novel that one might read in the era from 1920 to 1940. The dialogue is a bit more modern, so that
a word or two of the "seven words" banned from broadcast media do appear.
The result is a light comic novel with mystery trappings which amuses--an intelligent middle-brow bit of fun.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly affective writing, August 5, 2009

By 

Paul R. Drake "community pastor" (Great Neck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs: A Mystery (Hardcover)

Having thoroughly enjoyed Yancey's first entry in this "detective" series starring the bumbling, ineffectual, but charming and ultimately triumphant Teddy Ruzak, I picked up the new story with eager anticipation. I was not disappointed at all. Yancey continues to add detail to Teddy's daily life and background on how he got to be the way he is. Even when not officially "detecting", but only consulting, Ruzak not only unravels the mystery, after some delightful twists and turns, he also amuses the reader greatly while doing so. Yancey at his best reminds me of Donald Westlake--quirky, ironic, and full of wit. I'm impatiently awaiting new entries in this enjoyable series!