Book 34, 2025

To Fetch a Felon by Jennifer Hawkins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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I completed the book To Fetch a Felon about an hour ago. I tried to finish last night, but it was late, and my eyes were getting heavy. Hee! The book is the first in author Jennifer Hawkins’ “Chatty Corgi” mystery series, featuring Emma Reed, who longs to open her own tea shop, and her corgi, Oliver. Emma can hear Oliver speak, although no one else can.

Emma has left London and her stressful job in finance behind. She returned to the village in Cornwall where her family spent holidays when she was a child. Emma has her eye on the old tea shop in the village, which has been closed for years. Unfortunately, she has a run-in with the current owner of the building when the woman scolds Emma for allowing Oliver off-leash. To make amends (and hopefully to get back on Victoria’s good side), Emma bakes some scones for her. When she arrives at Victoria’s cottage, however, she finds her dead. As a child, Emma was always looking for some mystery to solve, which is why she is curious about this case. When another visitor to the village, a journalist, asks if she’d like to investigate with him, Emma takes him up on it. Both of them are convinced that a local cold case has factored into the current crime. Someone in the village is keeping secrets, and it may take a corgi’s nose to sniff out the criminal.

This was cute and fun. What I really liked is that, although Oliver can “talk” to Emma, he relates information based on his own, canine nature. He has his own names for people (“Nervous Lady”, “Pale Man”, etc), and most of what he discerns is through scent. Of course, Emma doesn’t dare get caught carrying on a conversation with Oliver, and she struggles to find a way to pass on information that he gleaned from his nosing around. Characters were portrayed wonderfully, and I enjoyed meeting new people along with Emma. The narrative proceeded at a smooth yet quick pace, and the story was engaging.

Favorite lines:
♦ “It sounds like you’re ready to open yourself to some new chances and some old dreams.”
♦ “I’d hate for my bit of breaking and entering to keep me up past bedtime.”

Lively and entertaining, four stars.

( Trope Test )