Book One · The Case of the Missing Blue Ribbon

Mrs. Alvarez has won the blue ribbon at the county fair

eleven years running. This year, two weeks before the

contest, the ribbon goes missing off her kitchen table —

and four dogs who live at the end of the street decide to

find it.

Skadi works out the plan. Brandi forces the door and

knocks over the flour. Punkin follows the only trail there

is, and gets distracted by a sandwich halfway along it.

And Jet, who is enormous and in no particular hurry, is

the one nobody can get past.

A warm, funny first case set in Victoria, Texas — where

the heat does not let go in October.

Book Two · The Case of the Missing Colt

High in the mountains above Chama, New Mexico, a colt

has gone missing from the meadow in the night. His mother

will not eat, and the only clue is a gap in the fence that a

young horse could have walked straight through.

This is Punkin's book. The trail is easy for the first mile

and then a mountain stream washes it away, and the only

dog who can find it again is the slow one nobody wants

to wait for. Then the rain comes, and the crossing rises,

and Jet has to do the thing he was born to do.

Book Three · The Case of the River That Took It

In Red River, New Mexico, one street runs through the

whole town, and at the bottom of everything runs the cold

river that never stops.

A girl on the bridge loses a family heirloom into the

water, and Jet goes in after it — and this is Jet's book,

so the swimming is the point. But the river took more

than the locket. There is a second thing at the bottom,

and it cannot be solved by swimming at all.

Punkin can follow anything on ground. Here she has to

work water, and for the first time in her life she finds

the answer and cannot reach it.

Book Four · The Case of the Blocked Culvert

Out in the open country of the Valle Vidal, a creek has

stopped running, and eleven calves are standing in water

that keeps rising. The only way through is a pipe under

the road, and the pipe is packed solid.

This one is Brandi's. She is the only dog who can open

it, and she does — dragging out sticks and mud for a long

time, sneezing eleven times, and never stopping. And

near the bottom of the blockage she pulls out something

that does not belong in a culvert at all: a strip of horse

harness with a name on it.

The whole town blames the neighbors. Skadi does not.

Book Five · The Case of the Voice in the Water

The river in San Antonio runs one levl below the street,

and down in that stone channel, sound does strange

things. Voices travel the water and arrive in the wrong

place.

An old man is calling for his granddaughter. She is thirty

feet away and he cannot hear her, and Skadi works the

whole thing out while standing completely still.

Then the wallet goes missing, and it is not on the path

and not in the river — it is on a ledge under four inches

of fast green water, where only one dog on the team can

reach it.

Book Six · The Case of the Missing Skate

Eighty thousand people, one hockey rink, and one skate

that has gone missing out of a boy's bag at the doors.

This is the biggest case the four have ever taken on, and

the first one no single dog can solve. So Skadi does

something she has never done before: she splits the team.

Punkin works the crowd. Brandi stands in the doorway

being watched. Jet and Skadi walk the whole building

twice at Jet's pace, making it nervous.

And nobody stole anything at all.