A dog, a synagogue, and a deadly crime. When a young man suffering from mental illness disrupts the blessing of the animals at Steve Levitan’s synagogue, he and his golden retriever Rochester are launched into an investigation that will take Steve back into the past of his family, his congregation, and the Jewish population of the city where he was born. In this 8th of the golden retriever mysteries, Steve and Rochester nose out suspects and dig up clues to present-day crimes—and ones in the past which still influence the living. From the rabbi’s Talmud study group to a homeless shelter in Trenton, our two intrepid sleuths are on the trail of someone with deep secrets, and the will to kill to protect them.
When his neighbor is accused of murder, reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan and his golden retriever Rochester are asked to sniff out clues to prove her innocence. Who could have killed bookstore owner Darlene Nowak? One of the food trucks venders she angered when they parked in front of her store? Someone from the writer’s critique group she sponsored? Did a self-published author she refused to promote write her into a real murder mystery? Steve knows that cooks and creative folks are very sensitive about criticism—but could one of them be angry enough to kill? “The golden retriever mysteries are barking good!” - Sparkle Abbey, author of the Pampered Pet mystery series
When his college friend Doug moves to Stewart’s Crossing after an ugly divorce, reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan sees a way to pay forward the help he received under similar circumstances. But when Doug dies under mysterious circumstances, Steve and his crime-solving golden retriever Rochester have a new goal: Find the truth behind Doug’s death, even if Steve has to risk the freedom he has fought so hard for to do it. Contains Ponzi schemers, a Quaker funeral and cute jump drives shaped like llamas.
Rochester goes to college-- but he's not digging up a degree! When his mentor, Joe Dagorian, director of admissions at prestigious Eastern College, is murdered during a fund-raising event, Steve Levitan feels obliged to investigate. He and his golden retriever, Rochester, go nose to the ground to dig up clues, including a bloody knife and some curious photographs. But will Steve’s curiosity and Rochester’s savvy save them when the killer comes calling? A cozy mystery for dog lovers! Second in Neil S. Plakcy's Golden Retriever Mysteries, The Kingdom of Dog is funny and charming-- and who can resist a gregarious golden character like Rochester?
A murder in Steve Levitan’s gated community is bad enough—but when someone puts out rat poison that innocent dogs could consume, he’s fired up to track down the villain and make his world safe for people and their canine companions. With over 20,000 trade paperbacks and e-books sold, and hundreds of glowing reader reviews, it’s clear that Rochester, the hero of Neil Plakcy’s Golden Retriever Mysteries, has captured the hearts of dog lovers and mystery fans. When his golden retriever Rochester discovers a body during one of their nightly walks, reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan must look to his neighbors for suspects. Could a killer be lurking along the oak-lined streets? Steve inherited his townhome from his father, and it’s more than just a house to him—it’s the place where he recovered from the loss of two miscarried babies, the pain of losing his parents and the misery of his brief incarceration. Now that he has a new sweetheart, and a loving dog, protecting his home is even more important. Could someone in the homeowner’s association be sabotaging efforts to keep River Bend a well-maintained place to live? It’s up to Steve and Rochester to dig up the clues to bring a murderer to justice, and protect the place they call home.
Autumn has come to Bucks County, and Steve Levitan has a new job: develop a conference center for Eastern College at Friar Lake, a few miles from campus. But on his first visit to the property, his golden retriever Rochester makes a disturbing discovery, a human hand rising from the dirt at the lake’s shore. Whose hand is it? Why was the body buried there? The answers will take Steve, his photographer girlfriend Lili, and the ever-faithful Rochester to a drop-in center for recovering drug addicts on the Lower East Side, a decaying church in Philadelphia’s Germantown, and finally to a confrontation with a desperate killer.
Two parents die and two families mourn, in very different ways. Amateur sleuth Steve Levitan and his clue-sniffing golden retriever Rochester face two deaths in the 12th full-length novel in this long-running series. An Alzheimer’s patient slips away from home on his own and tumbles into the Delaware River. And then Steve’s love Lili suffers the crushing loss of her mother in a Miami Beach hospital. Eckhardt Lalor left behind a fortune in real estate, a fractured family, and a bitter legacy as a city slumlord. Does that add up to murder? There’s no question of what killed Benita Weinstock—a dodgy heart—but her death rocks her daughter’s world, and Steve’s. It will be up to Rochester to solve the crime and heal his humans in this new mystery with heart -- and fur!
THE START OF A BEAUTIFUL PARTNERSHIP— A DETECTIVE DUO WITH HEART AND FUR Steve’s ripe for a new relationship—divorced, over forty, and still dusting himself off from a lamentable sojourn in prison, an unusual experience for a professor, to say the least. (He really must do something about his hacking habit!) Rochester’s a handsome, homeless, loveable golden retriever whom Steve had always found too big, too enthusiastic, and too shaggy. But tragedy struck their neighborhood when someone murdered Caroline, Steve’s nice next-door neighbor, while she walked her best friend, Rochester. Steve’s the unlucky guy who finds her body and he just knows, despite their differences, that he has to take in the broken-hearted pooch. Once they’re both properly rehomed, these two form a detective partnership that’ll make you sit up and beg for more. Eat your hearts out, Spade & Archer—pretty soon they’ve got a warm and fuzzy thing going. Big furry forthrightness—not to mention heart—meets tech-savvy craftiness as they work their case. Rochester has no idea he has the potential to be the greatest doggy detective since Rex the Wonder Dog was a pup. But he’s got a job to do and he has to find a way to train Steve in the fine art of investigation. Unbeknownst to Steve, his life just changed radically—because a big furry mentor has just trotted into it. Both want justice for Caroline, and Rochester’s way of expressing it is simply to sniff out one clue after another in the hope his two-legged colleague can piece them together. Steve’s way—when all’s said and done— is still to bend the law a little, with the help of Caroline’s contraband laptop. And also to follow Rochester’s trail of treats.
Who crept into Boris and Natasha Krimsky’s mini-mansion and murdered them while they slept? Could it be the cousins they brought over from Russia, who want more money from them? Or the physicist who claims he helped Boris with the ideas behind his multi-million-dollar patent? It can’t be their resentful son, because he has an iron-clad alibi. Or does he? And how does a similar crime committed in Florida connect to the case? Semi-reformed computer hacker Steve Levitan and his clue-sniffing golden retriever Rochester are on the case. With wit and canine antics, this team go nose to the ground to bring a killer to justice.
It's almost time for graduation, and Eastern College is in trouble. A prominent alumna is dead, and a faulty computer program is jeopardizing student records and financial aid. It's up to Steve and Rochester to dig into the situation and retrieve the culprits!Rita Gaines wasn't a nice person—but she did love her dogs, and most of her clients respected her financial acumen and her talent in training dogs for agility trials. When she's found dead, there's a long line of potential suspects from Wall Street whiz kids to doting doggie daddies-- including one of Steve's former students. Felae is an art prodigy now studying with Steve's girlfriend, Lili, chair of Eastern's Fine Arts department, and Rita hated his controversial senior project. When she tried to have his scholarship cancelled, he threatened to kill her. But is he the villain behind her death?In between helping Steve's high school friend Rick track the killer, Rochester practices darting around weave poles and jumping over limbo poles while Steve helps shepherd the college toward the completion of another academic year. It's spring in Stewart's Crossing, and old friends – and their dogs—gather together to investigate and eventually, to celebrate.
