What's the matter with Morris Lamb's house off Cambridge's Brattle Street? First, gay bookseller/cafÇkeeper Morris himself died after a dinner of ill-chosen plants from his garden, and now Ruffly, the hearing dog assigned to Episcopal priest Stephanie Benson, who's renting the house from Morris' partner and lover Doug Winer, has begun to have inexplicable seizures. Fortunately, Stephanie's son Matthew is seeing the cousin of Dog's Life staffer Holly Winter, who's almost as interested in getting to the bottom of Morris' death as she is in the greater glory of Dog. Holly's canolatrous adventures (Gone to the Dogs, Bloodlines) have been pitched at all dog-lovers, but you really need to love dog shows, or at least show dogs, to appreciate their full bouquet. (Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who books don't include the addresses of real-life wholesale suppliers and support groups.) If you think the conflict between criminals and victims is reducible to the difference between dog fanciers and ``atheists'' who ``do not believe in dogs,'' you'd better go fetch this.
