Can human and animals communicate? Well, Diogi and I just had a nice Q&A about his life with Samantha Barnes.

---

---

What is your full name?
Diogi. Just plain old Diogi. Because I am a dog. It’s easy to remember how to say my name because it is pronounced dee-OH-gee, as in D-O-G. My person, Samantha Barnes, the Cape Cod Foodie, thinks this is hilarious. I don’t get it. I just think it makes good sense.

That’s me on the cover of Murder Is No Picnic. That’s because I am, like, the star of all the Cape Cod Foodie mysteries. Or at least star of the covers. In the first one, A Side Of Murder, I was what my person calls a ginormous puppy. In the second, An Eggnog To Die For, I’m almost full grown and getting even more ginormous. And now, I’m very proud to say, I am a full-fledged ginormous dog.

How old are you?
In people years, I am three years old. In dog years, I think that makes me 21. I’m not sure. Math is not my strong suit.

What is your profession?
My profession is taking care of my person.

Because, you see, what happened was Sam had a bit of trouble in New York City, where she had been an up and coming young chef. Turns out her chef husband was the kind of guy who makes me want to bite someone. Him preferably. Anyway, they had a kind of sword fight with their chef’s knives and somebody put it up on something called YouTube, and suddenly Sam’s not a chef anymore.

So when she inherits her Aunt Ida’s house in Fair Harbor on Cape Cod, she comes home with her tail between her legs (I know exactly how that feels).

In her new life Sam is the local paper’s “Cape Cod Foodie.” She has what she calls a “complicated” love life (although what’s complicated about a harbormaster who takes us out for rides in his boat I do not understand). Also, she’s got a posse of just-slightly-odd friends (including our neighbor, the librarian Helene Greenberg, who I wuv), and me, her super-wonderful (in my humble opinion) dog!

And, oh yeah, she has what Helene calls “a propensity for falling over dead bodies.”

That’s where me taking care of Sam comes in. Because no matter how many times Helene tells her to be “very, very careful,” she never is. . . So I ride around with her in our truck, Grumpy, with my big, old head hanging out of the window to scare away the bad guys. Totally works. Most of the time. . .

Who is your best friend?
Ciati is my best friend. Ciati is a cat. Well, a kitten. But my understanding is that she will turn into a cat. She’s pretty great for a feline. Her person is my person’s handsome harbormaster (aka The Man With The Boat, see above). Ciati’s name is pronounced see-AY-tee, like C-A-T. My person thinks this is hilarious, too. I still don’t get it.

Ciati and I have a good game, which Sam describes in Murder Is No Picnic:

While I waited for Jason’s call, I entertained myself watching Diogi and Ciati play the “find the kitten under the couch” game, in which Ciati sticks a paw out from beneath the slipcover and Diogi tries to shove his big head under the sofa in a vain attempt to find her, only to be utterly amazed when the paw appears in a completely different spot.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
Sam and I live in a small town called Fair Harbor on Cape Cod. Fair Harbor is great. It has everything a dog could want: beaches to take long walks on and maybe find a stinky dead fish to roll on; Sam and all Sam’s friends, who, I’m pretty sure, think I am the world’s best dog; Ciati, who definitely knows I am the world’s best dog; and a beach shack where I get my very own French fries. What a town!

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
I live with Sam in her Aunt Ida’s house. Here’s how Sam describes it:

It was a full Cape, which meant that it looked like a child’s drawing of a house—a door with two windows on either side and a chimney in the middle of its peaked roof. The front of the house was painted clapboard, the rest sided with cedar shingles faded to silver. Over the years, the house had been added to in the typically haphazard Cape Cod way. It was an architectural crazy quilt that I’d always loved.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
Duh. The kitchen. There is food in the kitchen. Sometimes when Sam is in one of her cooking frenzies, some of the food drops on the floor. It is my job to clean those little messes up. I am a very good dog.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
Every meal is my favorite meal. I’m not allowed to have dessert. Unless I manage to sneak it off the kitchen table when Sam is not looking. In which case Sam tells me she is very, very disappointed in me and I feel really guilty for about thirty seconds until something else, like a squirrel, catches my attention.

Do you have any hobbies?
Chasing squirrels. Chasing balls. Chasing Ciati. Pretty much just chasing.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
When I need a vacation from my profession of taking care of my person, my favorite spot is that place on the kitchen floor where the sun comes in through the window and makes me all warm and sleepy. (I am what Sam calls a “solar-powered dog.}

What is your idea of a really fun time?
See chasing, above.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
How Diogi Helped His Person Solve All the Cape Cod Foody Mysteries. Because the truth must be told.

What is a typical day in your life like in general and when you are on a case?
Well, both of those kinds of days are pretty much the same.

First, wake Sam up so I can go outside and, ahem, greet the day.

Chase Ciati.

Eat a bowl of kibble with, if I have been a very good dog, sometimes has a little of last night’s left-over dinner mixed in.

Take Sam for a nice long walk around Bayberry Point. Sam gets a little cranky without a nice, long walk, so I feel it is my duty to whine at her until she takes the leash off its hook by the door.

Take a nice, long snooze in my sunny spot in the kitchen while Sam writes a restaurant review or goes out with her friend Jenny to film a Cape Cod Foodie video or catches a bad guy.

Jump all over Sam when she gets home, then insist that she throw what she calls “Diogi’s disgusting tennis ball” about a hundred times for me. (By the way, what’s so disgusting about a little doggy drool?)

Take another nap.

Wake up for dinner.

Go out to, ahem, greet the night.

Fall asleep with Sam on our bed. She says it’s her bed, but I beg to differ. After all, I take up most of it.

---

Murder Is No Picnic, A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery #3
Genre: Cozy
Release: June 2022
Purchase Link

When a celebrity chef is found dead, Samantha Barnes, the “Cape Cod Foodie”, finds her search for the world’s best blueberry buckle turning into a search for a killer

The Fourth of July is coming, and for professional food lover Samantha Barnes, it’s all about the picnic. Okay, and the fireworks. And the parade. But mostly the picnic. What could be better than a DIY clambake followed by the best blueberry buckle in the world? Sam has finally found the perfect recipe in the kitchen of Clara Foster, famed cookbook author and retired restaurateur, and she’s thrilled when Clara agrees to a buckle baking lesson.

But when Clara dies in a house fire blamed on carelessness in the kitchen, Sam doesn’t believe it. Unfortunately, her doubts set in motion an investigation pointing to the new owner of Clara’s legendary restaurant—and a cousin of Sam’s harbormaster boyfriend. So, in between researching the Cape’s best lobster rolls and planning her clambake, Sam needs to find Clara’s killer before the fireworks really start. . .

---

About the author
Amy Pershing, who spent every summer of her childhood on Cape Cod, was an editor, a restaurant reviewer and a journalist before writing the Cape Cod Foodie mysteries, including A Side of Murder — which Elizabeth Gilbert called “the freshest, funniest mystery I have ever read” — and An Eggnog to Die For — which Kirkus Reviews gave a starred review, saying, “A delightful sleuth, a complex mystery, and lovingly described cuisine: a winner for both foodies and mystery mavens.” The third book in the series, Murder Is No Picnic, also received a starred review from Kirkus, which wrote: “A clever, empathetic and totally believable heroine sets this fine cozy above the competition.”

All comments are welcomed.