This Dog for Hire (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Carol Lea Benjamin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1996 | Series: Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries

A female P.I. and her pit bull, Dashiell, become the most formidable new sleuths on the streets of New York in a crime novel that covers a territory as wide as the city itself. When Rachel and Dash start looking for a missing dog, the duo doesn't get off the streets until they've sniffed out a murderer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Benjamin's spirited debut, featuring Greenwich Village PI Rachel Alexander and her trusty sidekick, a prescient pit bull named Dash (short for Dashiell), is written with enough flair to make it appealing to more than just dog lovers. Rachel is hired by a gay man whose painter friend, Clifford, was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. In addition, Cliff's pet basenji, a barkless show dog, is missing. It takes Rachel no time to find the dog because he has a National Dog Registry tattoo. But she realizes that tracing the car and driver that ran over the young man as he stood on the Christopher Street pier won't be as easy. She begins by examining the three most obvious parts of Cliff's life: his lover, his art and his dog. She finds his lover in cahoots with his art dealer, who plans to make a killing from Cliff's sudden notoriety. Cliff's art is a disturbing, personal expose of his childhood, and the dog's handler has been making a tidy sum on the side in stud fees with frozen sperm. With this host of leads, Rachel goes from an elegant gallery opening to the most famous dog show in America, Westminster, becoming, alternately, both stalker and stalked. Street-savvy Rachel, resilient in the face of obstacles, and Dash, whose talent for opening doors and sensing danger is immense, come through it okay and nab the bad guy. And Benjamin writes with a wit nearly as sharp as Dash's teeth.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA. A young New York artist is killed by a hit-and-run driver on an isolated pier late at night. A friend contacts Alexander and Dash, a private-eye firm run by Rachel Alexander, ably assisted by her pit bull, Dashiell. In addition to tracking down the killer, they must locate the victim's missing basenji, a competitor scheduled to enter the upcoming Westminster Dog Show. After they find the animal, his trainer is also killed. Rachel interviews the artist's friends, lovers, and colleagues. The trail winds through the Greenwich Village gay community, Soho art circles, and the dog show world. The story climaxes in an exciting confrontation with the killer. The book has a strong female character and lots of action. The dogs are realistically portrayed with no animal conversations or intuitions marring the plot. Snappy dialogue and a fast-paced story will hold readers' attention.?Penny Stevens, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company (December 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802732925
• ISBN-13: 978-0802732927
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,845,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Lea Benjamin is the award-winning author of Dog Training for Kids, Dog Tricks (with Capt. Arthur J. Haggerty), Dog Problems, Second-Hand Dog, The Chosen Puppy, Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence, Dog Training in 10 Minutes, and the Rachael Alexander and Dash mysteries, This Dog for Hire and The Dog Who Knew Too Much.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Private Investigator Comes Extra, June 5, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Dog for Hire: A Rachel Alexander and Dash Mystery (Hardcover)

This debut novel by dog trainer Carol Benjamin came as a pleasant surprise. I eyed it suspiciously wondering if I had another annoyingly clever animal helping out another scatterbrained girl/woman in a mystery with all the suspense of who ate the last piece of cake.

In reality, P.I. Rachel Alexander is total New York, rough edges and all. Brilliantly trained pit bull (yes, pit bull) Dash is very refreshingly - a dog. He snores, begs for treats, slobbers, and steals the covers just like dogs you and I have known. All right, Rachel does get a little smug about his repertoire of skills, but other than that, he is ok.

Dennis Keaton hires Rachel. His friend and neighbor, an artist, has been murdered via vehicular homicide and his champion basenji is missing. Dennis feels the police have chalked up the killing as a gay bashing and have lost interest. It turns out the artist was not starving in a garret; he was a very wealthy young man with a mysterious, handsome lover. He was to have his debut gallery opening the following week. Magritte, the basenji, is found under mysterious circumstances. The clues pile up with the motives apace and the culmination of the action takes place in Madison Square Garden at the annual Westminster Dog Show.

The novel is seriously over-plotted with curious loose threads throughout. She takes the dog with her to do some serious sleuthing, but he is not with her when she comes home. She eloquently describes a Big Present she had to schlep to her sister's home, but that's the end of it. Present is neither acknowledged nor opened, at least in our presence. The good stuff is Rachel herself with her effortless dialogue, somewhat bawdy sense of humor and her easy interaction with all walks of life. Many of the characters are gay and the dialogue is realistic and brisk. The author does a good job of capturing New York ambience and just how miserable it can be in the wintertime. Rachel sees this terrible weather as a test of her devotion to all things New York. I found the sections on the insider's view of the premier Westminster Dog Show fascinating.

"This Dog For Hire" is an excellent first effort and I will be looking for more of Rachel. She never gets on your nerves and is excellent company.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For hard-boiled fans, August 19, 2000

By 

Sheila L. Beaumont (South Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Dog for Hire (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Most so-called hard-boiled mysteries written by women are really more medium-boiled and contain some elements of the cozy, but not this one. "This Dog for Hire" has too gritty and depressive an ambience for my taste. It's not all bad, though. The plot is clever enough, and the dogs are well-portrayed: Dash and Magritte are by far the most likable characters in the book and actually made it worth reading. I also enjoyed the inside look at the Westminster dog show. If you like both truly hard-boiled detective fiction and canines, you'll probably find this a good read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Dash than You're Probably Used To, August 10, 2005

By 

Lee Charles Kelley "dog trainer/mystery novelist" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Dog for Hire (Rachel Alexander & Dash Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Before I start I think I should tell you a few things: a) Carol Lea Benjamin and I both write dog mysteries for Harper Collins/William Morrow, b) we're both huge fans of Dashiell Hammett, and c) I totally disagree with her philosophy of dog training (I've said for years that the alpha theory is pure nonsense, and I've been proven right by some of the recent research that's been done on wild wolf packs).

Okay, now that that's over with I can tell you that I read this novel when it first came out (when I was in the process of finishing the manuscript for my first dog mystery), and the stupid book kept me up all night. This woman is a damn fine writer and I don't care who knows it!

The reason I've given my review the title I have is that I just read a couple of the reviews from readers here who found THIS DOG FOR HIRE boring! This is incomprehensible to me. I've read a lot of mystery novels and very few authors have the kind of power to pull me into a story the way Benjamin does. And the only thing I can think to say to those readers is that this book probably has a bit more "Dash" (double meaning) than they're probably used to. It is superbly written.

So, if you like dogs, and you like tough female detectives who have a wry sense of humor, especially about themselves, I think you'll really like this book.

A first-rate first novel from a truly first-rate mystery novelist.