Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Dog of Deliverance: A Golden Retriever Mystery by Neil S. Plakcy. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

Dog of Deliverance: A Golden Retriever Mystery

by Neil S. Plakcy

Dog of Deliverance: A Golden Retriever Mystery
Cozy Mystery
21st in Series
Setting – Pennsylvania
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently Published
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 30, 2025
Print length ‏ : ‎ 246 pages

When his golden retriever Rochester discovers a body behind the bounce house at Stewart’s Crossing’s first Purim carnival, Steve Levitan finds himself juggling two dangerous investigations that will test both his computer skills and his courage.

Eastern College President Babson asks Steve to use his hacking expertise to investigate Austin Graynor, a star academic whose impressive credentials might be hiding a darker past. What Steve discovers about the professor’s history with female colleagues creates an urgent dilemma about academic power and deadly consequences.

He’s distracted, though, by the murder of Yakov Shmerler, a diamond dealer who was supposed to marry eighteen-year-old Hadassah Schildkraut. Hadassah fled her restrictive Orthodox community to stay with friends of Steve’s. As he helps his detective friend Rick Stemper investigate Yakov’s murder, they uncover secrets that reach from Pennsylvania to the isolated community of Kiryas Lev in New York’s Catskill Mountains.

Hadassah’s escape has made her a target. Her blog exposing corruption in her hometown threatens powerful men who’ve built their authority on others’ silence. As both investigations converge on themes of hidden identities and the courage to challenge corrupt authority—echoing Purim’s ancient story of Queen Esther—Steve must protect those speaking truth to power while helping bring dangerous men to justice.

Author Guest Post

I can trace two formative experiences that led to the inspiration behind the first of the golden retriever mysteries, In Dog We Trust. Both came to me while I was working for a catalog sales company with an online website.

I was the technical writer, going around from station to station, learning people’s jobs, and then writing up instruction manuals for each position. It was a great job because I loved interacting with my colleagues, learning about their jobs, and then writing. 

I was stationed in the web development department, and in my spare time I was gaining basic skills in HTML, JavaScript and graphic design. I learned how the company was protecting its data from illicit hackers: the protections around log-in credentials, and the “honey pot” technique to lure in would-be hackers with what looked like an open port, and then trap them.

One of my colleagues was a guy in his late twenties whose wife was pregnant with their first child. Sadly, she suffered a miscarriage, and my colleague was understandably upset. Until that time, I’d never thought of how a miscarriage could affect the father, but Tim’s sadness resonated with me.

That’s when the first seeds of the book started to come together. In a standard cozy mystery, a young woman suffers a loss in the big city. Maybe it’s a broken heart, maybe a lost job. Then a reason pops up for her to return to her small hometown, where she begins to rebuild her life.

What if I wrote about a guy instead of a young woman? That was closer to my own experience. But why would he return home, and what was the cause of his pain?

Before In Dog We Trust starts, Steve Levitan is a successful technical writer and web developer in Silicon Valley. When his wife Mary gets pregnant, they’re both celebrating.

Then Mary miscarries, and indulges in some retail therapy to recover. It takes Steve a year of working overtime to get them out of debt. And then Mary is pregnant again—and miscarries once more.

Instead of talking through their pain, Steve decides to hack into the three major credit bureaus and put a red flag on her credit card, so she can’t drive them into debt again. Unfortunately, as these things happen, Steve was discovered, arrested, and sentenced to prison time. 

Mary divorced him and he had no choice but to return to Stewart’s Crossing, where his late father had left him a townhouse.

I didn’t learn how to hack while working for ABC Distributing, but I learned enough to give me some background for Steve and how he could get into trouble. The only missing ingredient was the dog who would help him heal. Fortunately, that dog was sprawled out next to my desk as I typed. My beloved Samwise, a mischievous, loving golden retriever who, when given a few extra skills, became Rochester, the co-star of the series.

And then I was off to the races! Twenty-one books later, Rochester is still sniffing out clues and Steve is using those computer skills to help his police detective friend solve crimes.

About Neil S. Plakcy

Neil S. Plakcy is the author of over 70 novels in mystery, romance, and adventure. His golden retriever mysteries are inspired by his English Cream goldens, Brody and Griffin, who are constantly sniffing around for food or affection.

Author Links
WEBSITE:  mahubooks.com
BLOG:  https://plakcy.substack.com/
FACEBOOK:   https://www.facebook.com/neil.plakcy
GOODREADS:   http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/126217.Neil_Plakcy
PINTEREST: http://pinterest.com/neilplakcy/boards/
TWITTER:     https://twitter.com/NeilPlakcy
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/neilplakcy/
BOOKBUB:    https://www.bookbub.com/profile/neil-s-plakcy
LINKED IN: linkedin.com/in/neilplakcy
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE:      http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JP4EL6

Purchase Links – Books2Read  – Amazon 

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS

August 20 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT

August 20 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST

August 20 – Eskimo Princess Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT 

August 21 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT

August 21 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

August 22 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

August 22 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT

August 23 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

August 23 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

August 24 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST

August 24 – Deal Sharing Aunt – AUTHOR GUEST POST

August 25 – Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog – CHARACTER GUEST POST

August 25 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

August 26 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – AUTHOR GUEST POST

August 26 – Baroness’ Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT

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