Bed-Bugged

Ask Doodle, a 70 pound labradoodle, why he flunked out of service-dog school and he'll tell you: smart and obedient don't always go hand in hand. His former bosses call him a “career-change” dog, but he knows what that term really means: fired. Turns out he doesn't have the temperament to be a service dog like his littermates. “Too much doodle, not enough labra,” as one boss put it, referring to his poodle-like independence and his tendency to run away.Now he has a job sniffing out bed bugs for a new boss, Josh Hunter of Hunter Bed Bug Detection Agency. The best part of the new job? Definitely Molly, the boss's 10-year old daughter. She slips Doodle extra treats when she's not busy snapping photos with the camera she carries everywhere.But Molly has secrets of her own. The biggest one—a book filled with her photographs—she keeps hidden in the closet. She tells Doodle the book is for her mother, who disappeared when Molly was only three. Maybe to Mexico, Molly says, where her mother's parents moved after they were deported. But then Molly's photos attract the attention of a gang of criminals. And when she enlists Doodle's help to solve the crime, his nose and her camera lead them straight into danger.A charming mystery for dog lovers of all ages, Bed-Bugged should appeal to fans of the N.Y. Times best selling Chet and Bernie series by Spencer Quinn.