Keenan has lived all over the world but nowhere quite as strange as Centerlight Island, which is split between the United States and Canada. The only thing weirder than Centerlight itself is his neighbor Zarabeth, aka ZeeBee.
ZeeBee is obsessed with the island's history as a Prohibition-era smuggling route. She's also convinced that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered--something Keenan finds pretty hard to believe.
Just about everyone on Centerlight is a suspect, because everyone hated Barney, a huge dog--part mastiff, part rottweiler--notorious for terrorizing the community. Accompanied by a mild-mannered new dog who is practically Barney's opposite, ZeeBee enlists Keenan's help to solve the mystery.
As Keenan and ZeeBee start to unravel the clues, they uncover a shocking conspiracy that dates back to Centerlight's gangster past. The good news is that Keenan may have found the best friend he's ever had. The bad news is that the stakes are sky-high.
And now someone is after them. . . .
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Brief review
Felt like a very slow start, but I was always reading it late and night and dozing off.
Strong, well laid out characters. The plot was slow until about the midpoint, but then picked up and took off. Once I got to the middle I couldn’t put it down.
I guessed the ending roughly at the point all the suspects were being laid out, but it was exactly the nice finish I hoped it would be. Like most of Korman’s book, this was a fun little romp.
While there are others (of Korman’s) out there I’d like to see made before it, I could see optioning the rights to this for a movie or an hour long ABC Saturday morning movie (if they did that anymore) or a Netflix original.
