Delilah Doolittle and the Careless Coyote — Patricia Guiver

Sunny Southern California seems an unlikely place for a British widow to call home. But pet detective Delilah Doolittle is probably the least eccentric--if not the most civilized--of Surf City's resident population. With an astute Doberman pinscher named' Watson sniffing out clues, Delilah spends her time tracking down errant pets. And experience has taught her that the trail of a missing animal often leads to the worst of human nature ...

Poor Mavis Byrde was practically in tears. Neither the police nor the pet psychic could find her beloved Abyssinian, Meowzart. Now Delilah's on the case and she fears the worst. Coyotes are always preying on Surf City's strays. Or it could have been Mavis's cat-collecting neighbor. Then she encounters an even bigger mystery ... the neighbor has been murdered! Delilah will have to rely on her own wily ways to get to the bottom of both cases ...