Take a female detective in New York City and turn her into a dog trainer, and what do you get?

An author who writes about a female detective in New York City with a very well-trained dog - of course!

And a "pit bull," at that. Named Dashiell, at that. (You know, like Dashiell Hammett, the mystery author?)

I've read only a few books from this series, but they're good. Be sure you want hard-boiled (you know, like Dashiell Hammett) 'cause this ain't no cozy, cupcake.

You get a big, gritty dose of NYC in the books, but somewhere like that comes with the hard-boiled territory.

Rachel Alexander and the well-trained Dash are in:

This Dog for Hire (1996)
The Dog Who Knew Too Much (1997)
A Hell of a Dog (1998)
Lady Vanishes (1999)
The Wrong Dog (2000)
The Long Good Boy (2001)
Fall Guy (2004)
Without a Word (2005)
The Hard Way (2006)

Pros: NYC, dogs, PI, mystery novels

Cons: none noted

entertaining

Pros: sounds like a good read

Cons: none