As sole proprietors of the Little Detective Agency, canine detective Chet and his (human) friend Bernie are at it again in A Fistful of Collars. After the mayor of Bernie’s Southwest desert hometown (“the Valley”) successfully promotes the area as a location for the newest Thad Perry blockbuster film, the pair act as minders for the popular but problem-ridden actor. Turns out the oddly winsome Thad has a way-back connection to the Valley. No one in his entourage seems to want his past known . . . maybe badly enough to kill?

As in his four previous books, author Spencer Quinn features the indomitable Chet as narrator, and you’ll never have a dull moment as the cocky canine wags his way into your affections. The book is full of hilarious verbal fly-bys, and these Chet-isms are what give the books their inventive humor, as Chet alternately misses the point or gets it with bells on. He explains that an idea can slip right by him, a fact he quickly accepts: “My mind shrank away from the thought. Always a surprisingly nice feeling when my mind did that: I had one of those minds that was on my side, if you know what I mean, which I actually don’t.”

You’ll never have a dull moment as the cocky canine wags his way into your affections.

The quiet Bernie (one wishes he’d say more) is hopeless with expressing feelings, especially toward the opposite sex; and he’s a loser at finances. But as the brains behind the operation, he has a fine-tuned sense of what’s going on in people’s heads, exacting the crucial truth from troubled suspects. Chet contributes his superior doggie hearing and speed, and he has a wonderful sense of what’s buried inside the human heart, fueling those human needs that sometimes confuse him. Bernie puts ‘em on the spot, Chet gets ‘em by the collar.

This book contains some fascinating cameo roles: a smallish dog barking from the desert outside Bernie’s gate; a frightening killer dog named Outlaw; and Brando, a silky-smooth, golden-eyed cat who belongs to Thad. Chet’s full of surprises, and they frequently surprise him, too. We hope that Quinn (a k a well-known author Peter Abrahams) doesn’t tire of this, pardon me, arresting pair.

Amateur investigator Dandy Gilver is an upper-class lady who solves upper-class crimes, along with her friend Alec Osborne. Her aristocratic approach gets a little tattered around the edges as she inserts herself into a household of folks who do not welcome her, but she has her breakthrough moments in Dandy Gilver and An Unsuitable Day for Murder, the sixth book in Catriona McPherson’s popular post-World War I series.

Dandy’s been called to the Scottish town of Dumfermline by a member of the Aitken family. She’s there to find young Mirren Aitken, whose family owns the Aitken Emporium, a solid, staid department store that’s celebrating its solid, staid 50th anniversary. Turns out the family’s afraid that Mirren has run off to elope with Dugald Hepburn, youngest son of the owners of House of Hepburn, the other department store in town. A major rivalry fit for the Capulets and Montagues keeps the two families far apart, each the other’s nemesis.

During the anniversary celebration at the Emporium, Dandy discovers Mirren horrifically dead, with her mother alongside holding a revolver. With this, the story is off and running, with a determined Dandy pursuing an elusive scenario well after the police have deemed the death a suicide.

Despite her aristocratic airs, Dandy is not above disturbing the crime scene, pursuing her own line of questioning and continuing to interfere in the lives of both the Hepburns and Aitkens after they’ve told her to get lost. Occasionally, she seems on the verge of noticing her behavior: “If anyone were ever to find out that Alec and I had come along like a pair of gangsters’ heavies and intimidated a grieving family this way after being told to leave them alone . . .  we would never work again,” she thinks. However, Dandy is not to be deterred from wresting a criminal from the depths of this sad, tortured family, even if it might be better to leave well enough alone.

Keep your Hepburn/Aitken family trees handy—they are conveniently provided—and your thinking cap on; you’ll need them, as confusion mounts in the “who’s who” of siblings and parents. What better place than this story to apply Sir Walter Scott’s famous line, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practice to deceive.” Readers will keep guessing right up to the endgame in this startling tale.

Antiques Disposal, a new entry in Barbara Allan’s Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series starring Brandy and Vivian Borne, is a high-spirited foray into the lives of this mother-daughter amateur sleuthing team, and it’s peopled with an assortment of eccentric characters and a slightly disheveled storyline.

When Brandy and her flamboyantly attired mother, Vivian, win a bid for the contents of an abandoned storage unit near town, they anticipate finding a treasure trove of items to add to their booth in the antiques mall in downtown Serenity, a midwestern town vaguely located on the Mississippi River. But besides finding a bunch of boxes and an old beat-up horn, they’re left with a dead body—that of Big Jim Bob, the owner of the storage facility. The cops investigate and pronounce it murder most foul.

Shortly after the unit’s contents are transferred to Brandy and Vivian’s domicile, an intruder breaks in, attacking Brandy’s sister, Peggy Sue (well, she’s not really Brandy’s sister, but never mind), leaving her unconscious, along with Brandy’s beloved shih tzu, Sushi, who’s lying in a heap near the door (never fear, she recovers nicely). The only item that’s missing from the newly acquired cache is the horn . . . but it turns out to be another horn that the intruder has grabbed by mistake, leaving the newer one safely in their possession.

Not content to leave the mystery to the police—and curious about the coincidence of Jim Bob’s demise and their break-in—the dynamic duo begin an investigation on their own. What’s so valuable about that horn? There are some clues among the unit’s contents, and mother and daughter not-so-discreetly begin to find answers as they track down the unit’s former owners. Brandy and Viv must sort out the pieces, extracting answers from a reluctant police chief and from questionable lawyers, greedy antiques dealers, folks from a nearby neighborhood and a group of town retirees calling themselves The Romeos. Turns out that horn may be well worth the trouble.

Long digressions by Vivian or Brandy may test the patience of some readers, but those who enjoy such asides will relish the verbal competition between mother and daughter, each of whom claims to have a handle on the story. This installment will be welcomed by fans of offbeat cozies everywhere.