A Grave Catastrophe

Oliver Briskett stands accused of the murder of Thomas A. Gentle. It takes all his seeing-eye dog skill to find the true offender and resume his rightful place on the mat by the fire in the living room. He is ably assisted in this pursuit by Block and Tackle, the two Maltese from down the street, and a mysterious Fox who lives in the Bushland out the back. The way is not easy, as Oliver discovers, when he encounters cat corpses, toads and Angela Forthwright – each one, in their own way, set to challenge Oliver’s talents to the fullest.

The detective/narrator in this story is a dog, an ex-seeing-eye dog, now retired, and he’s trying to solve the murder of one of the neighbourhood cats. Oliver also needs to be able to convince the humans that he wasn’t to blame for the crime. In the process of looking for clues, he and the two Maltese terriers and his seeing-eye replacement, a golden retriever, dig up the corpse–this only makes the whole thing look worse, of course, and Oliver is in danger of being sent away… for good (or not so good, really).