Living the Life of Gnarly: (Story of a K-9 Sidekick)
By Lauren Carr
This guest post is the story of Gnarly, German Shepherd sidekick to Mac Faraday, the star detective of Lauren Carr’s Mac Faraday Mysteries.
Mac Faraday was a homicide detective in Washington, DC, when his life changed in one day. With the pound of a judge’s gavel, Mac’s twenty-year marriage was over and his wife got everything. He was wiped out financially. As he was leaving the courtroom, a lawyer approached him. Fearful that he was about to get another financial hit, Mac ran for three city blocks before he felt sorry for the little man chasing him.
With the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret, this lawyer informed Mac Faraday that the teenaged girl who had given him up for adoption forty-seven years earlier had grown up to become Robin Spencer, world famous murder mystery writer. Upon her death six weeks earlier, she had left her entire estate to her only child.
Mac Faraday also inherited Robin Spencer’s dog—Gnarly, who has recently been elected mayor of Spencer, Maryland, located on the shores of Deep Creek Lake.
Here’s Gnarly’s story, as dictated to Archie Monday, because Mac has grounded him from using the computer after ordering a $2000 Home Pet Spa, complete with a massage attachment, on his credit card.
Take it away, Gnarly!
I was born a poor German Shepherd at Beck’s Kennels, located in a small town in West Virginia called Inwood. Okay, maybe I wasn’t exactly poor, but let’s face it, it was a far cry from Spencer Manor on Deep Creek Lake, Maryland.
Well, I could tell you about my life in the Army, but then I would have to kill you. So, I guess you want to hear about how I ended up as chief of security at Spencer Manor, Mac Faraday’s multi-million-dollar estate, and mayor of Spencer. I know, most mayors quit their day jobs after getting elected, but I just can’t leave the security of my favorite human to just anyone. I mean, if something happens to Archie, then who’s going to feed me? Who’s going to take me to the salon? Who’s going to cover up my scandals?
Anyway, I digress …
It all started after the Army decided they needed to get rid—I mean, it was time for me to leave my life of service in the United States military.
Eventually, I ended up on Spencer Point, assigned to protect this less-than-nice woman named Katrina Singleton in It’s Murder, My Son.
Let’s just say she and I didn’t see eye-to-eye. I kept trying to tell her that someone was seriously stalking her, but she wouldn’t listen and kept telling me what a bad dog I was because I was digging up her yard. She kept locking me in the garage. Hello! It was my job to protect her and she’s locking me in the garage. How am I supposed to protect someone when I’m locked up?
But there was this nice police officer, David O’Callaghan. He listened. After Katrina’s murderer almost killed me when I tried to apprehend him, David took me to the vet. Katrina’s husband ordered them to put me to sleep, but Robin Spencer, the nice lady who lived next door to Katrina, saved me.
Life with Robin Spencer (until she died a couple of months later); and then Mac and Archie Monday (Robin’s assistant, now Mac’s wife) is the best. Mac has a tendency to get testy on occasion—like when I find things and bring them home. He especially gets mad when David, who it turned out is Mac’s half-brother, shows up in his role as chief of police and accuses me of stealing this stuff that I have found fair and square.
But, I flash everyone my big brown eyes. My favorite female human, Archie will jump to my defense and plead temporary insanity. David will agree to abuse his position as chief of police and cover up my crime. (He’s even paid off some of my victims to drop their complaints, but you didn’t hear that from me.) Mac will grumble, glare, and ground me.
I must confess that the life of a rich and famous K-9 is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Take Mac’s latest case in Crimes Past:
It was autumn. The weather was fair and mild and the leaves were at their height—I mean brilliant colors—until I stepped outside and a feral cat attached itself to my face and started biting my eyebrows.
Not a good way to start the day!
Of course, I had to defend myself. I bucked the cat off and snapped its neck. So, I’m standing there with puncture wounds on my head, bleeding, and Mc’s sanding there with his mouth hanging up and there’s a dead cat laying at our feet.
Meanwhile, we are well aware that right next door, the crazy cat lady who brought all of these feral cats to torment me, is just looking for something to get me into trouble―like I can’t get into trouble on my own without her help. She calls the police if I so much as sneeze and my phlegm hits her driveway.
What does Mac do? What any good political advisor will do. He throws me in the car and we get the hell out of there. Then, he calls David to get rid of the body. Only problem is that the dead body disappears.
Anyway, other than yet another political scandal, it was the perfect weekend for a wedding. No, not mine! I’m a confirmed bachelor. Let’s get that straight. Though, I do admit I have a favorite girl by the name of Storm. She’s Belgian, by the way. She lives with David O’Callaghan, who has been a bit sad lately since his last girlfriend took off for Paris.
Mac Faraday has offered up the Spencer Inn, his hotel, as a free venue for the daughter of a detective he used to work with. The bride’s late mother had been the victim of a double homicide—a case Mac had never solved. Of course, Mac does have a devious streak in him. The bride had invited all of her mother’s co-workers and friends—who happened to be suspects in the murder. (And to think he scolds me when I’m devious.)
David was supposed to help Mac on the case, which meant I got to spend some extra time with Storm, only he ended up blowing Mac off when some lady from his past showed up out of the blue with a young man who bore a striking resemblance to David. Storm liked them both right away, so I guess they were cool—which is a good thing considering what they asked me to do at the end of the weekend.
Mac was so desperate to explore every avenue for a break in the cold case for the double murder that he even entertained a suggestion from disgraced former detective Lou Gannon that one of their former friends was the killer.
So I was taking a nice nap in my reserved chair in the lounge at the Spencer Inn when a toilet blew up! That’s right. Someone blew up a toilet and set Mac’s hotel on fire—in my town! No one blows up a hotel in my town and gets away with it. Of course, I had to get straight to work biting butts and taking names.
That was all Mac needed to rip into this cold case to get to the truth. The big question was—which was of Mac’s old friends was really a cold-blooded killer. Read Crimes Past to find out.
If you like you can check out my reviews for these books "It Murder, My Son", "Crimes Past".
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