Dog Diaries – Curse of the Mystery Mutt

James Patterson and Steven Butler's Curse of the Mystery Mutt is a spooky-silly Dog Diaries adventure for 7 year olds, starring a dog who's convinced a giant howling sausage is on the loose.

What happens

Junior hasn't slept. Something has been howling in the streets of Hills Village all night. Then his friend Lola arrives at the dog park in tears, because her beloved bear Mr. Fuzz-Butt has been stolen from her garden.

Betty knows exactly what's going on. It's the Howly Wiener! Back at the dog shelter, an old chow chow called Mama Mange used to tell stories about a night when a huge howling sausage roams the town.

Is your reader ahead of him already? It's Halloween, of course. Junior just has no idea.

The shops fill up with spiders' webs and monsters. Bins get knocked over in the night, more toys go missing and somebody raids the burger bar. Then Junior finds paw prints at the scene. The Howly Wiener isn't a sausage at all. It's a DOG!

So Junior turns detective. He sneaks out under the fence and follows a trail of ketchupy footprints across town. It leads him straight to the garden of Iona Stricker, the meanest obedience teacher in town (and she's sure the culprit is Junior). Can he get home before Ruff's school bus does?

The best bits are the mix-ups. Junior fakes a full flop-and-wail tantrum to get out of wearing a costume. Then Ruff comes out of the bathroom with a green face and bolts in his neck, and Junior's sure a monster has eaten his boy!

It's Junior's diary, so every few minutes there's a new entry with the time at the top. He chats away to your reader as if they're curled up together, and he's VERY dramatic about everything. The fright is all on his side. Your reader gets to be the brave one, knowing it's only trick-or-treating.

There's a lot of poop and pee, so be ready for that. Junior and his pack also creep out of their homes at midnight, which is all part of the fun.

He introduces his family and friends right at the start, so it's fine as a first Dog Diaries book.

What to read next

If they'd like another case for Junior's pack, try Ruffing It. The family go camping, a warden from the dog shelter turns up hunting an escaped dog, and Junior decides he and his friends will be the ones to find it.