What is chutzpah?

Dictionary.com gives as synonyms nerve and audacity. The word is Yiddish, and its roots go back to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ. The dog in the book’s title, Lady, has chutzpah. She is a canine force of nature.

When her first owner, the old man, dies, pregnant Lady, then temporarily at the Riverview Animal Shelter, becomes the pet of criminologist Alice, a woman with a full supply of audacity herself. Her husband, Art, is the RAS veterinarian. Before leaving RAS, Lady gives birth to two pups, and Alice and Art and daughter Katie adopt both Lady and one puppy, Princess. Soon Alice would have a crime puzzle: from RAS, someone steals Lady’s brother.

Who would dognap a pup? And why?

Ben’s adopted elder brother, Harold, lost his pinochle partner, Helene, to the warmer weather of the South, but soon found another partner, Bonnie. They usually played five-handed pinochle, a cut-throat winner-takes-all type of game. No gambling was involved, but they fought hard to win, sometimes breaking the rules.

Breaking the rules was a bit of a habit for Bonnie. She came under suspicion in the disappearance from RAS, during an overnight storm, of the dog eventually named Duke, Lady’s male puppy.

RAS dog trainers Skippy and Olivia prepared an Obedience Demonstration Match for Riverview, exciting the town and making Sandy jealous of the relationship developing between her two employees, revealing to her how much she had fallen for Skippy. But how did he feel about her?

The Match held some surprises, including an unexpected reunion. A virus from abroad had reached New York City and, soon after, it invaded Riverview, jeopardizing lives and changing plans. Man proposes. God disposes.

Helen Bemis has written over a dozen novels about her fictional Riverview community, incorporating her knowledge of people, dogs, and business to shape stories that have cozy mysteries and valuable insights.