At the opening of A Dog Among Diplomats, Harry is called to a boarding house in the East Village where a man has been found dead in a room that the police believe he had been sharing with Imogen. Stunned that Imogen is alive and has not gotten in touch with him, Harry decides that even though she is the prime suspect for the murder, he must move on with his life. Randolph knows otherwise, but since Harry has cleaned the house of all wheat products, including the Alpha-Bits Randolph used to communicate with him (under the guise of being the ghost of Holmes), Randolph must find new ways, including email, to keep his owner in the loop. 

Harry takes a job painting a mural at the U.N. and the police feel the murder is tied to something going on with some of the smaller country members of the U.N. so Randolph goes undercover as a therapy dog for the minister of Upper Palasia.  Two more murders in the boarding house follow, convincing the police that Imogen is innocent, but the question still remains, where is she, why hasn’t she contacted Harry and from what is she running so hard and fast?

  Randolph is an unusual private eye and has very sophisticated tastes.  He quickly learns to order from Amazon and enjoys a good hunk of liverwurst now and then.  He is clever and quirky, but he is a dog, and his personification may not be endearing to all readers.  While Harry does his best to soldier on, he is often pathetic and very open to suggestion (his new age doctor convinces Harry that all his problems stem from a wheat allergy).  A spoiled but precocious visiting niece and a flakey newspaper report are Harry’s current companions, but add little to the plot. 

The mystery is very well plotted, though the diplomats corny, and the search for Imogen and what some characters learn about her that Harry doesn’t will make readers curious about her. It may make them interested enough in her story that they will likely look for the next entry in the Bull Moose Dog Run series.                                                

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry