The Mystery of the Scarlet Stiletto — Robert Sullivan

Teddy Roosevelt and the Tomkins Tap team are on full alert. Their casebook is full - someone has made off with the Kongs and Greenies from the Petsville Store in Union Square - Oh no, not the Kongs! - Anna's stiletto has been eaten. Yes! Eaten! And Teddy stands accused. It's a sacrilege! - Jorge and Juan's food truck on 8th is being trashed. Por Favor! - The Williamsburg FoodFest has been robbed six times, and the vendors are frantic. They're going bananas! - The Scotties in Chinatown are in disarray, their whiskers burning, their kilts smoking. Begorrah! - and, finally, there's a ghostly hound loose in Greenwich Village, and puppies are being pup-napped. Goodness gracious! The City needs help. And the team to help is the Tomkins Tap Detective Agency.There are four squads in the TTDA - the Dogs: Teddy, Milo, and Perky; the Rats: Rambo, Ike and Charlene; the Squirrels: Ernie, Terry and Graeme; and the Pigeons: Percy, Petunia and Pilsbury. So yes, it’s a large crew. But it's a good one. There are no favourites in the TTDA. Everyone’s a foot soldier, and everyone’s treated the same. It’s like the Musketeers: ‘All for one and one for all’. The Agency motto is the stuff of legend.• We will leave no Dog, Rat, Squirrel or Pigeon behind;• We are all for one and one for all, always;• We will never surrender; and• There will be no fighting over the beignetsBut while everyone in the TTDA is equal, there still has to be a leader. Milo said it's called ‘primus inter pares’, or something like that. He said he learned it at school, or maybe read it in a book somewhere. The leader has to be someone with vision and enthusiasm, someone with a razor intellect, someone with the strength to carry the load, someone taller than a hat box. Well almost. And there's no doubt about it, there is only one leader, and that's Teddy Roosevelt – Dog Detective Extraordinaire. He might only be twelve inches high but he stands six feet tall and wears big boots. What a Dog!So Teddy and the team embark on a series of adventures that take them across the river to Williamsburg where they search slimy tunnels to solve the crime at the FoodFest; into the dark alleys of the Lower West Side where they accost and befriend the perps from the Petsville heist; to the dark streets of the old Five Points where they hide in darkness and rain, dodging squibs and bungers and Phantom Ferrets; and then to the sodden, muddy riverside of the Hudson, where they track the Haunted Hound of Greenwich Village. Being a detective is tough work. It takes a certain kind of Dog, or Rat, or Squirrel, or Pigeon. But the TTDA has it all. Sure, they fight over the cupcakes, the beignets and the banana cream, and they worry about their nails and hair-dos, but when the chips are down they come through. Every time.They're the Tomkins Tap Detective Agency.What a team!