John Sinister is hired to investigate why a former friend/classmate died, followed by that of his employer at the behest of the man's automaton cat (Dexter). Murder, intrigue, the title says it all.

The book didn't exactly gel with me. It was sort of funny, but for me the murder-to-hire employer was obvious. And the hi-jinx that involved a wax museum of replica of Her Majesty being pantsed was chuckle worthy, but I got hung up on three things throughout. One was the cat, which while it is an automaton, is the most advanced AI ever constructed by fluke to the point I'd be more content if say someone shoved a magical amulet up its behind to give it sentience than the actual in the story (his maker can construct a helicopter as his second most advanced contraption, but also fluked something that passes the Turing Test). That, and Dexter doesn't do really any work other than a touch in the last act. The "we're teammates" cohesion could have been more, when it wasn't. The other thing that got me badly throughout the book, is that this maybe 90k novel has only six chapters. You read that right. Six. The author doesn't know how to mark scene breaks, nor chapter breaks, and one chapter took 2 1/2 hours to read. While it didn't hurt the quality of the writing, it was odd. That stuck with me more than anything else.

Dickinson's strong writing trait is sussing info with his dialogue. John's forward questions are thoughtful and he writes a clever character. He knows where his characters are at all times (as does the reader) and builds a collective case against the perpetrators at a clip that is investigative, probing, but not so blind-siding as is common in a lot of mystery books where the author doesn't really know how to make the connection from A to B. The author wraps the plot holes up nicely in a little bow and presents it in perfect packaging. It is smart work. The author wields their knowledgeable clout effectively but without doing the thing of either dumbing down the work or holding their intellect so aloft that the reader is lost from the get-go. And while I dunk on the Dexter and John Sinister lacking the buddy cop duo that the title implies, there is still a character in Dexter. He wants validation and to be cared for, but is too proud to acknowledge it outright; whereas, John clearly sees right through that act and is patient with Dexter. So, there is a lot of great merit in this read.