Love Dogs and Mysteries? Carol Lea Benjamin’s Series Is Your Next Obsession

These mysteries are paws-itively gripping.

Book covers of "This Dog for Hire," "The Long Good Boy," and "The Hard Way"

It isn’t every day that you start your writing career with experience in both detective work and dog training, but that’s exactly how it happened for mystery writer Carol Lea Benjamin.

“As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer and a dog trainer. But I was told repeatedly that neither was possible,” Benjamin said.

“A few days after graduation, I got a job as an undercover agent for The Burns Detective Agency. Some years after that fateful meeting, I was given a Golden Retriever as a Valentine’s present and when he was an obstreperous teen, I signed up for a training class asked the trainer if he’d teach me dog training. And a few years after that, I began to write.”

In addition to writing several non-fiction books on dog training, Benjamin authored the popular Rachel Alexander & Dash mystery series, debuting in 2016.

“Years ago, going on a ‘flop and read’ vacation, I filled a bag with mysteries. Though I was not a mystery reader this seemed like a good idea. And it was. I figured I can do this; I could write a story with a dog in it who would only do things real dogs could do.”

If you’re curious about Benjamin’s award-winning mystery series, we’ve included all nine books below, with some insights into the books and her process.

This Dog for Hire

This Dog for Hire

By Carol Lea Benjamin

Private Detective Rachel Alexander and her devoted pit bull terrier make a dynamic team. She once saved his life, and he might just return the favor.

Their case: searching for a missing barkless champion basenji named Magritte—and a murderer. The dog belonged to a struggling artist.

But when the owner was found dead, Rachel believes that where she’ll find the dog, the killer will be closely behind. From the SoHo art district to the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, Rachel soon discovers that trusting the wrong person can be deadly. 

“Despite a lifetime with dogs and years as a trainer, I had lots of research to do—which I loved,” Benjamin said of writing the series.  

“I learned how, for instance, a cadaver dog could find a body that was in a lake.  Amazing. I found that it was fascinating to figure out a crime, a perp, a solution, while learning more and more about dogs and life as I worked.”

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

The Dog Who Knew Too Much

By Carol Lea Benjamin

P.I Rachel Alexander is hired by the parents of a young t’ai chi instructor. She tasked with trying to figure out why a seemingly happy woman would jump out of her Greenwich Village martial arts studio window.

Donning her clothes and stepping into her life, Rachel quickly realizes that this young woman would never have abandoned her one-eyes Akita.

But even with her faithful Dashiell at her side, searching for enlightenment can be dangerous.

A Hell of a Dog

A Hell of a Dog

By Carol Lea Benjamin

Before she was a P.I., Rachel Alexander trained dogs. So, when she’s offered the chance to run security at a dog-training convention at a luxurious Manhattan hotel, she can’t say no. 

“Starting with something you know and embellishing it is a terrific way to tell a story as long as you are open to something startlingly unknown entering the picture,” Benjamin wrote of her process.

“Because while you are embellishing what you already know, the strangest things will happen—characters will appear, scenes will write themselves, stories will take their own twists and turns, if you let them.”

In this world, it isn’t the dogs that need training—it’s the people. When a controversial trainer is electrocuted in his bathtub, it’s easy to think it’s an accident.

But when another trainer dies, and another, it becomes obvious there’s a murderer on the loose. With suspects ranging from pet psychics to celebrity behaviorists, it’s up to Rachel and Dash to find a killer before another trainer does more than play dead.

Lady Vanishes

Lady Vanishes

By Carol Lea Benjamin

Dash isn’t only the other half of a dynamic sleuthing team. He’s also a therapy dog who works with individuals who are developmentally challenged.

When the owner of a Greenwich Village second-chance home for struggling people is killed in a bizarre hit-and-run and the homes therapy dog is missing, Rachel & Dash are called to the scene.

The people at Harbor View deserve justice, and Rachel is determined to make sure they get it.

“Dash isn't real. He's fictional,” Benjamin wrote. “But he was modeled after a real dog. The real dog, Dexter, is not nearly as obedient as Dashiell. Let me go on record here and now—it is much easier to train a fictional dog than it is to train a real one.  You just type.”

The Wrong Dog

The Wrong Dog

By Carol Lea Benjamin

For the people who need them, service dogs are far more than mere companions or pets. They are lifelines.

That’s why Sophie Gordon let a woman talk her into bringing her service dog Blanche to the Horatio Street Veterinary Practice where she was assured she would be cloned.

“Do I want to clone a dog?” Benjamin wrote about the premise of her book.

“I do not. I think there are cheaper ways to break your heart. The clone would only look like my dog—he wouldn't be my dog. He wouldn't have my dog's experience, his world view, his work ethic, his generous heart. It's not only our genes that make us who we are, it's our history, what happens to us as we grow up and old. And while I love my dogs dearly, while I adore them, I would hate to live with a carbon copy, expecting it to be someone it only resembled. Still, the book's great fun and a good yarn."

Unfortunately, the puppy wasn’t exactly what she was promised. But when she tried to go back to the practice, the people she had worked with have all vanished into thin air.

And two days after that, Sophie ends up dead. Rachel doesn’t think it’s a coincidence—and she’s going to prove it.

The Long Good Boy

The Long Good Boy

By Carol Lea Benjamin

Rachel & Dash are hired by three working girls to investigate the death of their friend. Rosalinda’s throat was slashed after the Halloween Greenwich Village parade and her friends are terrified that they might be next.

Rachel soon finds a link between Rosalinda and a dead butcher, and with the help of a dachshund, she breaks into a plant in the Meatpacking District.

But when she uses herself as bait, with only Dash to protect her, Rachel finds herself facing the real possibility that her death might be next.

Fall Guy

Fall Guy

By Carol Lea Benjamin

After a New York City police officer accidentally fires his weapon while cleaning it in his Greenwich Village apartment, P.I. Rachel Alexander gets the shocking news that she is executor to his will.

She knew him through the 9/11 survivors group where Dashiell provided pet therapy.

But did he really commit suicide? And why choose Rachel when he has other family?

As she digs into his past, she hope to find a secret from his childhood that explain the tragedy.

Without a Word

Without a Word

By Carol Lea Benjamin

“Chess is a part of book,” Benjamin wrote, explaining why chess plays a role in the plot.

“Which takes place, in part, in Washington Square Park. You wouldn't be describing the park if you left the players out of the picture. And what better image could you have for a mystery than an intense struggle for life and death?”

Five years after his wife disappeared without a trace, a distraught father approaches P.I. Rachel Alexander and begs her to look into the case. She should say no.

After all, whatever evidence she left is probably long gone. But it’s his daughter who sways her. She hasn’t spoken a word since that fateful day.

And now, she’s suspected of stabbing her neurologist in his office late one night. Rachel knows the girl is innocent. Now, she just has to prove it. 

The Hard Way

The Hard Way

By Carol Lea Benjamin

Private Investigator Rachel Alexander has seen a lot over the course of her career. But when a wealthy business owner asks her to investigate her father’s brutal murder, it might be the hardest case yet.

He was pushed onto the subway tracks, allegedly by a violent homeless man. Disguising herself as a homeless woman, she infiltrates part of the city rarely seen by anyone outside of the poorest populations.

It’s an eye-opening experience into how fortunate her life has been and pushes her to find the truth while upholding the dignity that the disenfranchised deserve.

When asked what she hoped her readers take away from the series, Benjamin said this.

“I hope Rachel and Dash’s readers enjoy the stories, of course, and that in the process they discover what I did as a kid following my dog and watching what he did—and didn’t do—that dogs are smart and clever and good partners and great friends. And that we all can do more than we think we can, even when people tell us that’s not so.”