The facility needs extra protection for its research work as evidenced by a call to Elliot to track down a missing Labrador Retriever. The dog is part of a very secret and very expensive research project. However, all attempts by Elliot to elicit specifics to help him locate the animal are met with silence. What little help he is able to obtain is courtesy of an old girl friend, Christie, who is now married to a much older surgeon, Jim Oakner. Oakner has operating privileges at Pearson and during the course of a delicate procedure, Oakner collapses and lapses into a coma.

Through various machinations, Elliott manages to learn that Oakner, together with two other men of considerable wealth, had some sort of elaborate research scheme going. The research is funded by one individual whose identity is a carefully guarded secret. The missing dog is an essential part of this project. Hence the intense interest in locating the animal.

As Elliott proceeds in his pursuit of the missing dog he discovers that someone else is also looking for the dog. Unfortunately for Elliott, the other man looking for the dog is well versed in the use of firearms and has no reservations about using them if necessary to achieve his goals.

A Breed Apart is an unusual mystery in that it integrates medical research (in this case stem cell research) with international intrigue and technology. In addition ethical questions are at least hinted at with the use of animals in experimentation. At first it is difficult to fathom how the author will connect the disparate elements of the plot. That the Lab is a key element of the research project is easy to see, but how anyone not directly linked to the project should know about the animal or desire to gain possession of the animal is hard to imagine.

How the author chooses to portray the dog catches one’s attention immediately. Her story is told in the third person yet the insight into the dog’s thought process is eerie. There is no anthropomorphism here yet we only get a passing nod to the usual Lab traits of obsession with food or retrieving thrown objects. It seems that the author can’t decide whether the dog is omniscient or more sensitive to her environment than most animals.

Without spoiling the plot, the author has a clever plan.

The fact that the research involved in the facility includes stem cell research allows Davis to give a synopsis of stem cell research and list a few of the areas of controversy. Some of the technological aspects of the research are mentioned as well which should appeal to science buffs.

International intrigue also plays a role in the story allowing for some discussion of language and cultural barriers in communication. The setting shifts from the US to Mexico to Kuala Lumpur giving diverse viewpoints based on cultural heritage.

There are a few rough spots where events do not seem to make sense, but Pierre Davis redeems himself in the end by drawing all his loose end together to form a comprehensive whole. I was convinced that the story was really several stories in one that really didn’t fit together well. Further his treatment of the dog made little sense at all. I  should not have been concerned. Everything fit nicely together in the end and it was obviously planned that way from the beginning. 

--Andy Plonka