The Fala Factor — Stuart M. Kaminsky

Hollywood PI Toby Peters looks for a kidnapped dog - with political connections

If he is surprised to find Eleanor Roosevelt waiting for him in his dingy little office, Toby Peters does not show it. Although this is his first time working for the First Lady of the United States, years of private investigations for the Hollywood elite have left him unfazed by a famous face. The First Lady comes straight to the point. Six months after Pearl Harbor, the only thing that keeps her husband from buckling under the pressures of the presidency is his dog, a sprightly black terrier named Fala. As America gears up for war, Mrs. Roosevelt has a secret domestic problem: She fears that Fala has been kidnapped and replaced by an imposter.

As he investigates the dog’s whereabouts, Toby learns that the dog is the linchpin in a fiendish plot against the White House. He must recover the real Fala quickly, for the fate of the free world rests in the terrier’s paws.