Red Dog: A Slim in Little Egypt Mystery

In Miller’s funny follow-up to 2015’s Down Don’t Bother Me, two suspicious characters, Sheldon Cleaves and his grown son, A. Evan, ask Slim, of Redneck Investigations, to find Shelby Ann Cleaves, who turns out to be a pit bull puppy. Cleaves knows that Dennis Reach, who runs a roadhouse in Little Egypt, Ill., took the dog and offers Slim $65 to retrieve her. At the urging of Anci, Slim’s 13-year-old detective fiction–loving daughter, he accepts. Slim succeeds in retrieving Shelby Ann from Reach. But when someone shoots Reach dead with a Colt rifle and Sheriff R.L. Lindley suspect Slim, Slim starts looking for answers. Aided by the spunky Anci, Slim pursues a trail that leads him to Reach’s well-armed ex-wife, Carol Ray Reach; a white supremacist group; J.T. Black, a meth partner of Reach; and a dogfighting ring. Slim cracks wise, gives and takes beatings and insults, and gets just enough help to survive in this tale sure to please fans of light regional mysteries. Agent: Anthony Mattero, Foundry Literary + Media. (Aug.)