When teen Serendipity Dahlquist's dog is snatched, she's determined not to lose her hold on this one memento of her dead father. Brushing off her soap star grandmother, she skates across town to hire Leo "the Hound" Bloodworth to find Groucho. The crusty PI seems already to have stepped into some caca through his slimy partner. Each hot in pursuit of a personal agenda, Serendipity and Leo then cruise past the girl's appalling family, the Mexican mafia, some ancient history, some modern mayhem, and what can only be the Hollywood/Los Angeles culture, to a surprise convergence.
For a first novel, Sleeping Dog not only braves a risky concept, it displays rare control. The idea of a detecting team is as old as the genre. What author Dick Lochte does is play with the form by having each detective--the aging private eye, the precocious teen--tell the tale. Each has written a book about the case and rushed to publication, leaving the savvy house acquiring both manuscripts to combine them in a single volume. The reader gains all the fun of seeing the case from different, often contradictory, perspectives. It's even better when the author salts the situational humor with riffs on the genre, welcoming the reader as a savvy partner in the joke.
Leo to Serendipity: "That happens when you've been dead awhile. Rictus. Some writer called it 'the ivory grin' which may be a little melodramatic but says it all."
Credit Dick Lochte's brilliant characterizations as well as knowing LA inside out for the Sleeping Dog's critical success. Published in 1985, it won the Nero Wolfe Award and was nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards. In 1999, the Independent Mystery Booksellers'snamed it one of their 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Poisoned Pen Press will republish the only sequel, Laughing Dog.

First Holmes and Watson, then Nero and Archie, Now Leo and Serendipity--two detectives, two narrative voices, twice as much sleuthing and double the fun.

First, imagine Katherine Hepburn at fourteen. Next, in your mind's eye, replay Humphrey Bogart, at his middle-aged best, as Sam Spade. Now picture this oddest of couples as the newest duo in detective fiction and you'll have a perfect portrait of the memorable leads in Sleeping Dog."
--Los Angeles Times Book Review

Originally published in 1985 by Arbor House 0-87795-738-X and by Warner in pbk. 0-446-32661-5, Sleeping Dog won the Nero Wolfe Award and was nominated for the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony Awards. In 1999, the Independent Mystery Booksellers's Association named it one of their 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century. Poisoned Pen Press will republish the sequel, Laughing Dog, later this year.