Book excerpt: In the start of a charmingly imaginative cozy series sure to delight fans of Carolyn Hart and Diane Mott Davidson, Diane Stingley introduces a blundering detective who believes herself to be the great-great-granddaughter of the legendary Sherlock Holmes. After failing to launch her career as a Hollywood actress, Tammy Norman returns home to North Carolina, desperate for a regular paycheck and a new lease on life. So she accepts a position assisting Shirley Homes, an exceptionally odd personage who styles herself after her celebrated “ancestor”—right down to the ridiculous hat. Tammy isn’t sure how long she can go on indulging the delusional Shirley (who honestly believes Sherlock Holmes was a real person!), but with the prospect of unemployment looming, she decides to give it a shot. Tammy’s impression of her eccentric boss does not improve when their first case involves midnight romps through strangers’ yards in pursuit of a phantom dog—that only their client can hear. But when the case takes a sudden and sinister turn, Tammy has to admit that Shirley Homes might actually be on to something. . . . Praise for The Case of the Invisible Dog “A protagonist with panache stars in a delightful twist on the Sherlockian tradition. This dazzling series debut is sheer fun.”—Carolyn Hart, bestselling author of the Death on Demand series and winner of the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards “Crazy-like-a-fox Shirley Homes is the funniest sleuth I’ve read in years, and she’s sure to steal the reader’s heart as she did mine. In Diane Stingley’s fresh, fabulous, and fast-paced The Case of the Invisible Dog, the game’s definitely afoot!”—Sarah Graves, bestselling author of the Home Repair is Homicide series “Hold on to your deerstalker as Shirley Homes channels her great-great-grandfather and leads you and her own Watson on a crazy ride—that is, investigation—looking for both an invisible dog and a murderer. Woof!”—Marty Wingate, author of The Garden Plot