The Highly Effective Detective Goes To The Dogs (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
The Highly Effective Detective is touted on the back cover as being something like Donald Westlake, and I can see the basis for the comparison. Humor is definitely part of the story--as is the incompetence of the protagonist. Teddy Ruzak is the Highly Effective Detective--except that when the story opens he's being shut down because he has once again failed the state licensing exam. He's been calling himself an "investigative consultant" rather than a PI, but the state doesn't seem to think that's good enough. They want him closed down, and now. But when he turns around and finds a body in the alley behind his office, Ruzak can't stop investigating, license or no. That's okay, because no one is paying him.Like Sam Spade or Guy Noir, Teddy Ruzak is a loner. Unlike the true hard-boiled detective, that seems to be more a failure than a choice. While Ruzak forges on toward a solution to the crime (more by blind stubbornness than any great insight), he contemplates life, women, and God. What? Although the contemplation of God seems to be in part sparked reasonably enough by the mysterious letters of religious significance associated with the corpse, I found the thread to be a little disturbing and out of character with the general tone of the book.The dog of the title is a rescue from the pound, and given the importance implied by the titling, I kept waiting for him to play a more significant role. He's fine, he's just not that important. I wondered at times if it was just an add-on to allow for a fun title.In fact, I have been unable to completely decide if I like the book or not. The mystery is fine, Teddy and his troubled relationships are entertaining, but there is a persistent religious theme running throughout that I could live without. It's not that the author is blatantly preaching. Often, it's hard to tell what he really thinks--Ruzak is the narrator, and he clearly doesn't know what to think. Despite this there is at times a preachy feel to the contemplation of God, which doesn't do much for me. To balance that, however, there is the more purely existential question he faces, because his ancient friend Eunice believes that he is a character in the book she is writing, which may have started as a memoir but has become a work of fiction. I thought the subplot with Eunice was probably the best part of the book.Overall, I give the book 3.5 stars. The writing was entertaining and the plot gripping enough that I had no trouble in plowing through in a few hours (a good thing, given my time frame for reading and reviewing this!). And the contemplation of the nature of the human and divine is not entirely out of place in either a murder mystery or a book set at Christmas, and this is both. It's just that it feels a bit out of place in humor, which this book also is. This book was really bizarre; it wasn't a bad story, it was just weird.First the writing style is just so young. Which gave me the initial impression that the book had been intended for children until a couple of grope-scenes and dropped F-bombs reversed that line of thinking. Second, we're dealing with an overweight, amateur sleuth, with an A.D.D train of thought and sense of humor...Which again leads me right back to for children... Or adults with childlike attention spans. I marked this book with three stars because I enjoyed it and it made me laugh. The problem is, I can't tell if Rick Yancey's writing is amateurish or if he was purposely writing a juvenile story for adults because this is his idea of a joke. Airing on the side of generosity, I've decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and say this story is exactly as it was intended: A light, easy, readable, mystery with more laughs than thrills. That said a part of me wonders, if I haven't been overly generous.
What do You think about The Highly Effective Detective Goes To The Dogs (2008)?
Naïve, bumbling, and unlicensed detective Teddy Ruzak finds the body of a man outside his door.
—omar
These continue to be very entertaining books.I look forward to reading the third in the series!
—MicaH
This was a little darker than the first one but still very good and worth your time
—niahime
I found this to be a rather boring story... just kind of plodded along.
—Rachelle
