cover image White House Pet Detectives: Tales of Crime and Mysteryat the White House from a Pet's-Eye View

White House Pet Detectives: Tales of Crime and Mysteryat the White House from a Pet's-Eye View

. Cumberland House Publishing, $14.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-58182-243-4

With twice as many presidential pets as presidents in the White House over the decades, why not give these beloved creatures dogs and cats, sure, but also bears, ponies, goats and alligators their own moment in the spotlight? In White House Pet Detectives: Tales of Crime and Mystery at the White House from a Pet's-Eye View, editor Carole Nelson Douglas gathers 14 head-scratchers and whodunits (all but one new), including Grand Master Edward D. Hoch's ""Martha's Parrot,"" the story of a pet bird who witnesses a murder during George Washington's tenure, and Jan Grape's ""Tabby Won't Tell,"" in which a young Tad Lincoln's trust in his cat helps his father discover a murder.