The Long Good Boy

by Carol Lea Benjamin

Overview

A dog trainer-turned-PI and her pit bull go after a killer—with a little help from a courageous dachshund—in this mystery by a Shamus Award winner.

Rachel and Dash have a new client. Well, three new clients. A trio of transvestite working girls want Rachel to investigate the death of one of their own. Rosalinda’s throat was slashed on Halloween right after the Greenwich Village parade. Finding her killer isn’t exactly the NYPD’s top priority—and LaDonna, Chi Chi, and Jasmine are terrified that they’ll be next.

With her cash retainer in hand—and very few leads—Rachel starts digging. What is the connection between Rosalinda and a dead butcher? Soon, with the help of Chi Chi’s mini-dachshund, Clint, Rachel is breaking into a plant in the Meatpacking District. But her future is suddenly on the line when she sets herself up as bait to catch the killer. As Rachel follows a twisting trail with only Dash for protection, she discovers that her foray into “the life” could end with her own untimely death.

The Long Good Boy is the 6th book in the Rachel Alexander and Dash Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504052955
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	10/16/2018
Series:	The Rachel Alexander and Dash Mysteries , #6
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Carol Lea Benjamin is the author of the Rachel Alexander and Dash mystery novels, which feature a Greenwich Village–based private investigator and her pit bull sidekick. This Dog for Hire, the first book in the series, won the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. Benjamin has also been a teacher, worked as a private investigator, trained dogs, and written dog-training manuals such as Mother Knows Best: The Natural Way to Train Your Dog. She lives in New York City with her husband and two dogs.

Editorial Reviews

"[Benjamin’s] characters come vividly to life. . . . A mystery worth reading.” —Publishers Weekly

“You’ll find Benjamin’s work first-rate.” —The Plain Dealer

“Vivid New York settings, authentic descriptions of dogs and dog training, and appealing human and canine characters . . . might appeal to readers of hard-boiled New York novels (Lawrence Block, for example) as well as to fans of other canine series.” —Booklist

“Carol Lea Benjamin is as good at writing mysteries as she is at writing about dogs.” —Laurien Berenson, author of Underdog

“Vivid, sympathetic, and amusing characterizations.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

The title pun on Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye and the portrait of an adorable pooch on the front cover may give the reader the impression that Shamus Award-winner Benjamin's sixth Rachel Alexander and Dash mystery is going to be cute. Fuhgeddaboutit! The author's New York mean streets are mean and dirty indeed, if not downright ugly. Fearing they may be the next victims, a trio of transsexual prostitutes ("trannys") hire Rachel to find a friend's killer. Armed only with her formidable pit bull, Dash, Rachel dives into Manhattan's meat-packing district in quest of clues. Benjamin, a former private investigator, depicts this world and its denizens, tranny and otherwise, exceptionally well. Because she has a wonderful ear for dialogue and has interviewed the types of people she writes about, her characters come vividly to life. Among the best of her characters are her dogs, Dash and Clint the dachshund, whom Rachel must train to perform a feat of infiltration worthy of a Mission: Impossible episode. A skilled dog trainer, the author makes her respect for her canine characters' intelligence abundantly clear. There's enough plot to fill a book twice the size of this one, and at times the story seems to go off in several directions at once. More confusing than ingenious, the novel ends like Hamlet, with the cast of villains assembled and with almost as many corpses strewn about the stage. If it's all a bit too complicated, the best elements, the dogs and trannys, make this a mystery worth reading. Agent, Brandt and Brandt. (Oct. 10) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

In this exciting new anthology, 16 original stories blend mystery and astrology. Editor Perry's contribution, for example, The Blue Scorpion, weds historical fiction and ironic murder in a tale of two sisters with the same birthday who love the same man. Other authors include Edward Marston, Simon Brett, and Lillian Carl. For all collections.##+|0060198702George, Anne. Murder Boogies with Elvis. Morrow. Aug. 2001. c.256p. LC 00-067875. ISBN 0-06-019870-2. $23. ~Serial sister sleuths Mary Alice and Patricia Anne attend a benefit but wind up investigating the murder of an Elvis impersonator. More madcap adventures from the unlikely but always amusing pair. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A trio of transvestite prostitutes-LaDonna, Chi Chi, and Jasmine-hire former dog trainer and p.i. Rachel Alexander (The Wrong Dog, 2000, etc.) to investigate the death of one of their sisters, Rosalinda, who had her throat cut Halloween night. Learning that Kevin Mulrooney, manager of a meat-packing plant in the same neighborhood, was also killed the same night, Rachel decides it's no coincidence, and trains Chi Chi's dachshund, Clint, to enter the plant through a cat door and open a window. Clint, happy to be free of his miniature red leather coat, pulls off the job, allowing Rachel to enter and fax company files to herself. Although Rachel forgets to plan a safe exit for the two of them, Chi Chi calls on the new manager and keeps him, ah, occupied while Rachel makes her escape. It's no surprise that something is rotten at the plant, and it's definitely not last week's pork chops. When the impatient clients insist that Rachel join them on their patrols, she divides her time between jumping out of johns' cars and working the hosiery counter at Saks in order to cozy up to the plant manager's widow. As she sorts through the lies her clients tell themselves and the families involved tell each other, she realizes that there is no safe exit for anyone connected to "the life." The dachshund training is a stunt, but an exciting stunt. The vivid, sympathetic, and amusing characterizations of the transvestites linger long after Rachel's boners and other improbabilities fade.

Kirkus Reviews