Good Doggie — John R. Monteith

Although he's a man who professes a devotion to peace, Jonathan Jameson often finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when trouble is brewing. Abandoning life as an undistinguished academic after his wife has divorced him in favor of his best friend, Jonathan flees to bucolic English village Brownlow to lick his wounds. But does he find the tranquility he seeks? As CID Inspector Darling summed up while questioning him at the start of the Christmas season: "So that's one man beaten to death, a crushed cat, a broken neck, a wounded dog, a hanging, a stabbing, a broken arm, a concussion with stitches, and shall we say a grievous genital injury?" "And a partridge in a pear tree," Jonathan unwisely added. No, tranquility proves elusive. Lonely when he arrives, he's soon adopted by a dog who goes out each day desperately searching for. . .something. And a host of new friends includes his lustful landlady Elizabeth and the cast and crew of Fade to Cheddar, an amateur theatrical starring Jonathan himself as a New Jersey gangster. Life could be good. . .if only someone wasn't trying to kill him.