RISING DOG

The maniacally inventive Kohler (Rainy North Woods, 1989) now confronts Port Jerome, Oregon, tabloid newspaperman Eldon Larkin with a resurrected dog—a dog that, while cavorting for the camera at the local landfill, finds a mummified foot to chomp on. But whose? While sorting it out, the sex-starved Eldon strikes it lucky with the sheriff's lusty daughter, whose passion barely leaves him time to: survey the taxidermy work of Perry Reaves, who plans to convert the dump into the swanky Forest Vista Estates; attend the funeral of valiant tree-hugger John Henspeter; and deal with the kidnapping of the risen dog, a loudly lamented calamity for the doggie's followers—Cap'n Jasper, Paavo the Finn, One-Square, Wheelie, and Beanpole. More murders come to light before Eldon and his sensation-seeking editor at the South Coast Sun write -30- to an old as well as new Nekaemas County scandal. So wacky it makes an Enquirer headline seem staid. Kohler's outrageous satire of church-builders, gun-collectors, elected officials, and hapless reporters who lace French vanilla ice cream with cognac will tickle your funnybone as well as your libido. And the mystery's not bad either.