Ewwwww, Gross!

Flush - Carl Hiaasen

There's no question whatsoever of "nature vs. nurture" in the Underwood family. Given that papa Underwood - the name "Paine" is on his mug shot the local sheriff's department - named his daughter Abbey "...after one of his favorite writers, some weird old bird who's buried out west in the middle of a desert," it should come as no surprise that he's been known to perform a wee tad of monkey-wrenching¹. And getting caught - which is his most recent problem. With Dad in jail and Mom walking around mumbling the dreaded D-word², young Noah Underwood is having himself a heckuva bad summer.

Here Doggy, Doggy, Doggy...

The Hand that Feeds You - A. J. Rich

It’s a dog owner’s worst nightmare: the pet that shares your life has attacked someone. In this case, it was worse… far, far, far worse. Morgan Prager came home to her Williamsburg apartment that afternoon only to find her three dogs – a Great Pyrenees and two rescue pit bulls – covered with blood. In her bedroom she found the body of her fiancé Bennett, so savagely mauled that the funeral could only be closed-casket. One of the pitties didn’t survive the arrival of the patrolmen who responded to Morgan’s frantic 9-1-1 call; the other two dogs were bundled off to the local pound’s version of death row. The only reason they stayed alive at all was that they were evidence in a homicide…