Hot on the heels of the first Rory Branagan adventure comes this new story and The Dog Squad is every bit as sharp and quirky, and possibly even funnier. Dogs in Rory’s neighbourhood are going missing and he’s determined to track down the thieves, especially when his beloved Wilkins Welkin is snatched. Confined to his bedroom, his foot in a surgical boot, Rory can only watch as his associate Cassidy sneaks into the chief suspect’s house. It’s all a bit Rear Window in fact, but with the added joys of a comic dog fight, the intervention of Mrs Welkins and her slipper, and Rory’s big brother’s nascent moustache. Meanwhile Rory’s efforts to find out why his father left them continue and two new clues are revealed. This parallel plotline adds an extra layer and touch of genuine poignancy while Ralph Lazar’s illustrations match the text in wit and idiosyncrasy.
Hello. I am Rory Branagan. I am ACTUALLY a detective. One day, I will be the biggest detective in the world! And I will find out what happened to my Dad... But today, a CRIME has been committed on my OWN road. Someone is stealing dogs! What if they try to take Wilkins Welkin - my best friend who is also a sausage dog? I need to find these stinking baddies and I need to stop them! And THAT, friends, is what Rory does, with the help of his Accomplice, Cassidy, in a BOOMTASTIC adventure involving dogs, cats, a wheelie bin chariot, a brave and daring rescue and Mrs Welkin, who fights crime in quite a surprising way. (Just you wait! Just you wait!)
Andrew Clover is a Perrier-nominated comic, and actor, and writer, who once wrote a column Dad Rules, which was on the back page of the Sunday Times Style magazine, and starred as Gary in CBBC’s My Almost Famous Family. He has travelled to theatres and schools around the world, doing a show called The Seven Secrets of Storytelling, in which – as part of his own private dare – he climbs up a ladder, and sticks out his bottom, and pretends to lay a huge egg right on top of the deputy head.
