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Bullish on Bull Moose
March 4, 2008

"Harry could not grasp the meaning of Detective Davis's words, because, as I mentioned above, I had not yet informed him that Imogen was alive.  There was no "after she disappeared" for Harry.  In Harry's mind, Imogen had no "after" life that did not include him.  Harry was of two minds: Imogen was dead, but, because he loved her beyond telling, she never could be.  She haunted him but was permanently frozen as the girl who had disappeared one winter's night going to buy bread at Zabar's.  I should have conveyed what I knew to Harry, but, instead, I had decided to approach the revelation of her being alive in my own fashion.... I began to work my way through Great Expectations in a small-print, nose-unfriendly paperback edition, and as Pip and Estrella and Mrs. Havisham rose up from the page and began to play--not very nicely, those last two--in my imagination, I realized, once again, something that I have always known but frequently forget: literature is not a practical way to get things done."

The exquisite turns of phrase, of punctuation, and of mind above belong to Randolf, the dog detective (he's a Labrador) of J.F. Englert's forthcoming latest Bull Moose Dog Run Mystery, titled A Dog Among Diplomats.  He's describing the thoughts of the fornlorn partner of his missing master.

Bull Moose is real, by the way.  Here's a shoutout to Fly Walsh-Prasada.

Also of note are the production values -- very high for a MM title: the font is antiquarian in a crisp, non-cloying fashion, and the Labrador silhouettes that begin each chapter are at once whimsical and very classy, as every pup aspires to be.

And how, one may ask, does Randolf eventually "inform" Harry of his discoveries (spoiler alert)?  Astudyinscarlet1887@hotmail.com.

Posted by Michael Scharf on March 4, 2008 | Comments (3)