cover image Tourquai

Tourquai

Tim Davys, Harper, $19.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-179745-3

The pseudonymous Davys's third crime spoof to feature stuffed animals who behave just like humans (after Lanceheim) might have benefited from characters the reader can care more about as well as more humor. Insp. Falcon Ècu and his partner, Anna Lynx, accompany Mollisan Town's Supt. Larry Bloodhound to a crime scene in Tourquai, where Oswald Vulture's head has been sliced off and apparently carried away by the evildoer. If Larry and his team find the missing head of the deeply disliked "finance vulture," it can be reattached and Oswald resurrected. The pace picks up after Philip Mouse, a PI pal of Larry's, begins sniffing around in what becomes a standard police procedural. Plush suspects include Jake Golden Retriever, an art forger working for slippery gallery owner Igor Panda; eccentric inventor Oleg Earwig; Oswald's society wife, Irina Flamingo; and Oswald's mistress, Jasmine Squirrel; but the "killer" is an eye-winking surprise. (Mar.)