The Dog Park Detectives

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1
LOUISE

Partridge Bark group chat
Fiona (Nala's Mum): Anyone want to bet who was sick first after Girls' Night last night: Tank or Claire?
Yaz (Hercules's Mum): A French bulldog who has a tendency to barf, or a journalist who was drinking @Irina's cocktails? Tough one, but my money's on Claire.
Claire (Tank's Mum): Yeah. Yeah, it was me. I'm not going to make the recovery walk this morning. Soz.

Early morning sunlight stabbed my eyes. I adjusted my sunglasses and tightened my grip on Klaus's lead. Took a deep steadying breath; Claire wasn't the only one hungover.
'You look like something Hamish might have dug up,' Irina Ivanova called from across the street, gesturing at the black Scottish terrier at her side. With her fair hair hanging lank around her round, pale face, in sharp contrast to her designer leggings, top and trainers, Irina looked like a well-dressed zombie.
I knew I didn't look much better, but there wasn't much point in getting dressed up for an early dog walk in Partridge Park. Particularly not after our monthly ladies' night. I pushed my sunglasses further up the bridge of my nose and ushered my dachshund, Klaus, across the street. 'Who else are we waiting for?'
'No one. Although I'm not sure why you're all blaming me, I didn't force you to drink anything,' Irina said, her voice sounding like Eastern European gravel.
As sharp as her words were, there was no malice behind the usual refrain. She smiled as Hamish bypassed Klaus to greet me. Today he wore a blue bandana that read I'm not an effin' schnauzer. It was a sore point with Irina, although I suspected that as far as Hamish was concerned, as long as you were a dog or a human, you were cool. Squirrels, geese and cats were a different story.
'To be fair, from a distance . . .'
'Don't start,' Irina grunted.
I fought off a wave of nausea as I leaned down too

Blake Mara is a pseudonym of Mara Timon, author of Second World War thrillers City of Spies and Resistance. A native New Yorker who moved to the UK about twenty years ago, when Covid hit, she went cliché and got a pandemic puppy - a miniature dachshund with a massive personality. This opened her eyes to the canine-loving community that blossomed around the local dog park, and who became the inspiration for the Dog Park Detectives. But while her dog park pack have tackled some local crimes, they haven't found a dead body in the park . . . yet. For more information, follow her on Twitter (@TheBlakeMara), Facebook (BlakeMaraAuthor), Instagram (@Mara.Timon) or on her website, blakemara.com.