A Pug's Tale

April 25, 2011
Pace's cute sequel to Pug Hill sends pug-lover Hope McNeill into a madcap search for an art thief. The two great loves of Hope's life are her job at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her boyfriend's pug, Max. So when the Met hosts a pug-themed gala in honor of a wealthy donor, the event seems tailor-made for Hopeâuntil Max causes a scene and Hope has to rush him into her office, where they discover that a valuable painting has been stolen and replaced with a fake. Museum brass tell Hope they're not involving the police, but Hope wants to help recover the painting however she can, especially since she's a possible suspect. As she puzzles out the clues, help comes from unexpected placesâan heiress and fellow pug enthusiast, a private investigator, and Max, whose intuition and problem-solving skills are pretty remarkable for a pug. Though a sharp reader might spot the culprit a mile away, and readers' enjoyment of the story will be directly proportional to how much they love pugs, Pace has concocted a charming mystery-lite with abundant personality.

June 1, 2011

In this cupcake of a novel, a pug helps solve an art heist at the Met.

Hope McNeill finally gets to show off Max at work (though she smuggles him to work everyday in his own Sherpa bag) at a fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Pug Night." A soiree conceived to ingratiate an eccentric patron, pugs are running through the great halls of the Met, providing the perfect diversion for a heist. Before returning home, Hope checks her workstation (she's a restoration artist for the museum) and finds a Fantin-Latour painting of pansies propped against the door. On closer inspection, she discovers it's a forgery, and the spot where the real painting should be hanging on exhibit is empty. She calls her boss Elliot and the PR guy Gil, but oh, there is something suspicious afoot. Both Elliot and Gil insist that they hush up the theft and hire a private detective, a move that strikes Hope as peculiar (shouldn't they notify the police, or at least the museum directors?), but as they hang the forgery on the gallery wall Hope decides to crack the case herself, as it's becoming clear that Elliot and Gil suspect her. With the help of Daphne Markham, the elderly guest of honor at the Met's "Pug Night," Hope begins piecing the clues together. This is easier than one would expect because someone is actually sending Hope the clues. Like a scavenger hunt, Hope is traipsing through the museum, using her fine arts knowledge to follow one clue to the next, as she gets closer to the thief. And of course Max helps by growling at important moments. There is a subplot involving Hope's boyfriend, a lawyer in Africa doing aid work, but the important couple in this novel is Hope and little Max, sniffing out clues until they discover the authentic Fantin-Latour.

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May 15, 2011
Pace is the alpha writer of feel-good, girl-in-the city-with-dog novels. Art restorer Hope McNeil has seen some changes since the events in Pug Hill (2006). Her new boss is the coworker she once crushed on. She has a boyfriend, Ben, whos in Africa, and Bens pug, Max, is now living with her. She cant resist crashing a pug-themed party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in honor of Daphne Markham, a potential big donor. Unfortunately, Max goes berserk, and he and Hope end up back in the Conservation Studio, where she discovers a forgery of a painting that should be hanging in the gallery. As she and her coworkers try to solve the mystery of the substituted painting, Hope strikes up a friendship with Mrs. Markham, who says things that lead Hope to cryptic art-related clues that become somewhat clearer in her dreams. This cozy mystery is a winningly affectionate tribute to art, love, New York City, and pugs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)