The Spot and Smudge Series

Spot and Smudge - Book One

No one wanted her.

She was just a scrappy stray. A wandering nuisance, snatched from the streets of a southern town and tossed into one of their many high-kill shelters. The dog was nothing more than an inconsequential mutt with only a few days left to live.

And then along came Jerry.

Jerry, who travelled all the way down south from the little town of Pembury, Massachusetts.

Jerry, who packed her van full of the unwanted mongrels before making the two day trek back home.

Jerry, who made the same trip every few weeks, and was especially interested in the throngs of disposable puppies.

Jerry, who wasn’t exactly rescuing them.

No, Jerry had other plans for these unfortunate animals, and her twisted schemes were humming along nicely until she ran into a few snags.

The barrels of pilfered experimental chemicals her equally conniving and deranged husband stored in her kennels turned out to be way more dangerous than either of them realized.

He also thought it was wise to extort the neighbors, but the seemingly sweet old couple aren't ones to be trifled with, and neither are their sharp grandkids.

And they hadn't counted on the tenacity and cunning of this one little unwanted shelter dog. This stray who would accidentally become the most significant dog in the forty million year history of the evolution of canines.

And then there was her puppies.

This masterfully crafted first installment of the genre-bending Spot and Smudge series is a darkly humorous, wonderfully twisted tale about the unstoppable love of a unique family, the loyalty of a pair of very special dogs, and the perils of underestimating either.

The Glasgow Gray
Spot and Smudge - Book Two

To Ben Hogan his great Uncle Hamish’s reputation is as big a mountain as the man himself. His family’s rollicking tales of the brawny Scot’s Canadian adventures are Ben’s favorites, and he thinks he’s old enough to travel alone to the ranch in Quebec for a visit.

His grandmother Mimi agrees, and thinks a break would be good for him. Their family has been through a tough year, one that has forced Ben and his smart dogs to overcome some deadly obstacles. She also knows her grandson is missing his grandfather. Getting away and spending time with her late husband’s brother Hamish might be just what Ben needs, but convincing his concerned parents won’t be easy. The cold north can be a tricky place in the middle of winter, but Ben’s amazing pups would be there to help watch over him.

Spot and Smudge are looking forward to the trip too. They enjoy the Hamish stories as much as Ben, and equally exciting for the pups is the prospect of meeting one of the animals on their bucket list…Canis lupus, the gray wolf.

Ben’s parents are right to worry, but not because he’s too young to take the trip alone. The family had thought dispatching the deranged Dorschsteins would be the end of their troubles but those murderous opportunists were just the tip of a very large evil iceberg now pursuing them. The hidden criminal organization behind the pups' dark secret will stop at nothing, and it’s clear they are willing to unleash indiscriminate hell to find what they seek.

Ben and the pups soon find out the dead of winter in the wilds of Canada can be a very dangerous place. The nights are long, the snow is deep, and exposed skin can freeze in minutes. Just to survive takes brains and balls…and when you’re being hunted it also takes grit. The kind of grit that sometimes only comes from the cunning and loyalty of a unique pack of allies.

Let Slip the Pups of War
Spot and Smudge - Book Three

Fisho Mwale is a noble, simple farmer. A little shake-shake beer and a few of his daughter-in-law’s corn biscuits are enough to put a smile on his lined, dark face. He and his son Fulfort toil over a patch of rocky dirt in northern Zambia that until recently had provided well for them. But it’s been full drought for going on three years and they’re struggling to keep his young son’s wife and children fed. The father and son are forced to travel far south to find paying work. In the slums of Lusaka they sign on with a pair of animal parts traffickers and are sent to the most prominent, most lucrative, and most dangerous animal preserve in South Africa, as poachers. In his youth Fisho had been on hunts, and been hunted. He’s also seen security men and their dogs up close in the mines, but he’s never seen police dogs like the ones at this preserve. They aren’t like other dogs. They don’t hunt like other dogs, they don’t move like other dogs, and they don’t look away when they lock onto you with their too-smart stare. Fisho soon realizes he and his son are trapped between men they can’t trust, the lethal animals in the jungle, and these insanely effective hunters…and he wonders which will be the end of them first...

Tian and Harley Tzeng are inseparable cousins who have had each other’s backs since primary school. They are also members of a lethal family who run the underbelly of Hong Kong and are bent on avenging their fallen. Something has gone horribly wrong in the states. Both of their mothers and Tian’s brother Liko have been taken out by an unknown clan from a small town in Massachusetts. Grandfather is sending the boys and the rest of their equally deadly cousins to hunt down the perpetrators and to exact the appropriate payback. Backed by unlimited funds and weapons most armies can’t get their hands on it appears nothing can stop them…nothing but this underestimated little family…or perhaps the traitor in the cousins' own midst…

FBI director Douglas Barton doesn’t like what he sees. Dangerous internal files have gone missing, and his own organization is protecting the very corporation he and his loyal protégé are risking everything to expose. Its psychopathic leader Semion Mogevich and his deranged daughter Katia are enacting a chilling end game, and have given their deadly teams orders to let nothing stand in their way. But Barton knows the missing piece they need to complete their puzzle, and with the Mogevichs’ turning their attention to Pembury that little family and their special dogs might just be the bait he needs to stop Semion's insane plot…and flush out a rat in the process...

Of Rogues and Revenge
Spot and Smudge - Book Four

One rather odd family
Two irresistible hell hounds
Three scarily smart puppies
Four vengeful killers
What could go wrong?

“Are those rogues wearin’ bloody gun vests, or are your horrible mince and totties just giving me feckin’ nightmares?”

Spot and Smudge are back!

And they’ve got their paws full trying to raise three scarily smart and incorrigible young dogs in the midst of an escalating poaching war…while being hounded by an obsessed reporter…and the Tiandihui triads…and the United States government, who has a few questions for the Hogan family.

And then there’s the wee problem of a resurrected enemy hunting them with terrifying new weapons built from the horrors of their past.

Ben and his dogs will have to push the limits of their abilities and call upon their trusted circle of human and canine friends to survive in a world of powerful adversaries and murderous deception…

…of sinister science and hellish mutations…

…Of Rogues and Revenge.

A Wee Infestation of Jerrys
Spot and Smudge - Book Five

“If I told you there was more to the rogues than claws and fangs, would you believe me?”

Ben, Spot, and Smudge are racing to solve a rash of mysterious global outbreaks, but now that the accelerated dogs are famous not everyone's convinced they're man's best friend.

Powerful players are using the contagion for their own gains, and the new head of Orthus Corp is capitalizing on the chaos to exact some revenge.

The Hogan family and their talented friends aren't sure who they can trust, including their new lion-sized, custom-engineered pack of wolfish allies.

Dawn of the Canicene
Spot and Smudge - Book Six

"Man has had their run, maybe it's time to give someone else a go."

Ben, Spot, and Smudge are stuck between a horde and a hard place.

Their enemies' horrific end game is looming, and underestimating the depths of Olga Mogevich's viciousness is a mistake they can't afford to make.

To save all they hold dear the team will need to recruit a few new friends, but  there's no going back once those dogs are out of the bag.

In fact, they may trigger a new epoch.

The Dawn of the Canicene.