The first, most important thing to know about me is that my name is Oliver, and I am a corgi dog. Corgi dogs have a noble history originally travelled with the Vikings and we are a brave, warrior breed. That’s why we are the ones who guard the Queen every day. One day I will meet the Queen, and my royal brothers. But my job is almost as important. My job is to guard Emma Reed, who is the best human in the whole world, except for maybe the Queen.

Emma used to be a banker. We used to live in London, a very big city with even more smells than people. I love Emma, but London was not always easy to love. It had many cars, and Emma almost never let me off The Lead, and I had to wear Booties. Emma said it was to protect my paws from glass. I told her that noble warrior corgis do not wear Booties. Emma can be very hard to reason with sometimes.

She used to go away every day while I guarded The Flat. It was boring. Then, Emma got bored too. And sad. And angry, because of human things at the bank. So she decided she wouldn’t be a banker anymore, and we wouldn’t have to live in London anymore either.

Emma really is very intelligent, but like most humans, she is also very stubborn. It takes her awhile to understand what is really important. Like walks, and naps, and lots of treats.

But now we live in Cornwall and there are no more Booties! We have a whole cottage to ourselves, and a whole big hillside for our back garden, and I almost never have to wear The Lead, except when we’re in the middle of town. The town is called Trevena, and is on the seaside. We take many walks on the beaches, except when the weather is rainy, which it is a lot, because Cornwall is like that. Emma does not like to be wet, so sometimes I just have to be patient with her.

I explain to her that being wet isn’t actually bad for her, especially when she’s the one with the raincoat. Oh. Wait. That’s the other thing to know about my human, Emma. She does understand me, far better than any other human. We talk a lot, but it can be hard when other people are around, because Emma gets embarrassed when humans who don’t understand me catch us talking together.

That means sometimes it can be hard to get a word in edgewise, because now we have many new friends we get to spend all day with. Humans love treats and Emma makes the best treats in her cake shop: biscuits, cake, scones, buns and all kinds! Many humans, and their dogs, come to her takeaway counter and her tea times to share her snacks.

Now, instead of getting up kind of early and Emma going away right after breakfast, we get up very, very early and we both to The King’s Rest Bed and Breakfast. This is where our friends Pearl and Angelique Delgado are. They make sausages for guest breakfast every morning. After a lot of persuasion they have finally understood it is important that I sample them every day to make sure they are good for the humans they help take care of.

When breakfast is over, Emma opens her takeaway counter and tea shop in the B&Bs common room. There is a garden too, and sometimes the other guests have their dogs with them, so the day is much more interesting than it ever was in London.

Sometimes our other friend Genny Knowels stops by. She runs the chip shop down the street. Her Irish setter Rufus is an excellent dog.

I admit, I was not always sure Cornwall would be the best place to live. When we first got here, we met a very rude and shouty woman named Victoria. Victoria did not understand anything about dogs, let alone noble corgi dogs. She was very afraid that I would dig in her garden and hurt her rose bushes, which I never would! Unless it was important. Like when the Fox got into her garden. That was not my fault. The Fox is very rude, and shouldn’t be in anybody’s garden, and I was just trying to help.

She should have listened. If she had been a nice human and asked us in for a cup of tea, I could have told Emma there was something wrong with that tea and Victoria shouldn’t drink it. Then, she would not have gotten all poisoned and dead, and Emma would not have had to get all worried about trying to work out how that happened. Because Emma is very smart and she cares a lot about her fellow humans, and tries to look out for them. Just like I look out for her.

And that’s the very most important part of all my days.

To Fetch a Felon is the first book in the NEW “Chatty Corgi” cozy mystery series, released December 29, 2020.

Emma leaves London and her life in high finance behind her and moves to an idyllic village in Cornwall, with its cobblestone streets and twisting byways. She plans to open a village tea shop and bake the recipes handed down to her from her beloved grandmother, and of course there’ll be plenty of space for her talking corgi, Oliver, to explore. Yes…talking. Emma has always been able to understand Oliver, even though no one else can.

As soon as Emma arrives in the village she discovers that the curmudgeonly owner of the building she wants to rent for her shop hates dogs and gets off on the wrong foot with Oliver. Although some might turn tail and run, Emma is determined to win her over. But when she delivers some of her homemade scones as a peace offering, she finds the woman dead. Together, Emma and Oliver will need to unleash their detective skills to catch a killer.

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About the author
Jennifer Hawkins is a Michigan based mystery writer. When not writing, she embroiders, hikes, bakes, reads and watches way too many cooking shows. She can be found on Facebook: Jennifer Hawkins Author, and Twitter: @jenhawkinsauthor.

All comments are welcomed.