Spoken Word

4 Aug 2023

Spoken Word Episode 23: A BARKING MAD MYSTERY, The Nosy Detectives, By Louisa Bennet

James WF Roberts, Joy Media, Joy94.9, Literature, Podcasting, Spoken Word

LISTEN TO PODCAST NOW

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:54 — 53.0MB)

Subscribe or Follow Us: Google Podcasts | RSS

Spoken Word Episode 23: A BARKING MAD MYSTERY, The Nosy Detectives, By Louisa Bennet

This week on Spoken Word, James is joined live on air by famed novelist, Louisa Bennet

Monty, the dog detective, has bounded into a third mystery with the publication of Louisa Bennet’s, The Nosy Detectives, by Clan Destine Press.

Monty is a food-obsessed, naughty, and totally loveable Golden Retriever who will do anything for his owner, former Detective Constable Rose Sidebottom. In The Nosy Detectives Rose and Monty set up their own private detective agency and tackle their first case, a fire at a farmhouse that killed two people. The only witnesses are a teenager who hasn’t spoken since the fire and a dog called Panda.

“It’s another barking mad mystery,” says Bennet, who also writes hard-nosed thrillers as L.A. Larkin.

“This third book in the series is my most mysterious and, I hope, the funniest. It also means a lot to me personally because The Nosy Detectives is dedicated to my golden retriever, Pickles, the book’s inspiration, who died last year. My publisher commissioned Laura Gaitán, a fabulous artist, to hand sketch the cover and to liken the picture of the dog to Pickles. It gives me such joy to see him on the book jacket.

“This uplifting series appeals to young and old, tapping into adults’ inner child and also providing kids, aged eleven and over, a fun story told mainly from the point of view of a very clever dog. Kids particularly love the way that the dogs communicate by ‘wee-mail’ or by a ‘howlathon’ if messages need to travel over long distances. Monty is aided and abetted by Betty, a fearless Eurotunnel rat who loves Monty like a mother and has an encyclopedic knowledge of train timetables,

“Rose Sidebottom is the secondary narrator to Monty, and she keeps the story grounded as a classic cozy mystery.”

Bennet says she loves writing the Monty Dog Detective series because it takes her to such a positive place.

“I smile as I write and find the process cathartic. Monty’s fun adventures are a welcome break from the dark crime-thrillers I write as L.A. Larkin,” she says.

“The dog detective mysteries are so different to my thrillers. There’s no graphic violence or sex, no swearwords, and a happy ending is guaranteed. The stories are uplifting. For me, as an author, they are also therapeutic.”

Bennet is adamant that readers don’t have to be dog lovers to enjoy the Monty books.

“Cat devotees tell me that they love Monty’s adventures. They know, like me, that animals are a lot smarter than most of us presume. And every day, scientific research bears that out.”

The dog detective mysteries are set in the quaint English countryside and brings together the canine crime-solving of the TV series Rex with the humour of the Twitter mega-hit Thoughts of Dog.

Bio: Louisa Bennet studied literature at the University of London. She went onto to learn Canine Linguistics from her golden retriever, Pickles, which is how she discovered what dogs really get up when we’re not around. Truth be told, Pickles came up with the story ideas for Louisa to transcribe. She’s faster on the keyboard and less likely to be distracted by food or bad-tempered ducks.

Monty and Rose first appeared in Monty and Me, then The Bone Ranger, had a short adventure in the anthology Who Sleuthed It? and are now starring in The Nosy Detectives.

Louisa also writes crime-thrillers as L.A. Larkin. Her Sally Fairburn crime-thriller series kicked off in June with Next Missing Girl and Her Deadly Truth, published by Bookouture. The Nosy Detectives is her tenth novel.

She also runs courses on crime and mystery writing.

www.lalarkin.com

www.twitter.com/montydogd

www.facebook.com/AuthorLouisaBennet

Photos courtesy of Louisa Bennet and Clan Destine Press (c)