Sword Without Shield

There is nothing fluffy about Fluffy. He is a smooth coated rat terrier with three legs and a no nonsense attitude toward his two goals: protecting Christine Barton, his Abenaki keeper of the supper dish, and food—not always in that order. He was named ironically but is a straightforward as any ten-pound apex predator can be. Fluffy has no sense of irony. A retired cop turned private eye, Christine moves to Bangor, Maine with the help of backers she knows better than to trust. They gave her the startup funds and equipment and have saddled her with an assistant who was her mortal enemy only a year ago. Her first case is a local murder with historical overtones and way too many shady characters and ambiguous clues. But she has Fluffy, her champion, and like a mystery labelled cozy, his name  comes with bite.