#BookTour: Dog of Deliverance, by Neil S. Plakcy @dollycas #DogofDeliverance #NeilSPlakcy #cozy #mystery #Indie #excerpt #giveaway #GreatEscapesVirtualBookTours

Dog of Deliverance: A Golden Retriever Mystery
by Neil S. Plakcy

About Dog of Deliverance

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
Paperback ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8287443207
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0FCD4DRD2

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.

excerpt

While my wife Lili went upstairs to change for dinner, I reviewed my searches for Austin Graynor. My advanced checks looked for things like police records or articles about misbehavior that might be in the press. The local and national news was full of misdemeanors large and small, from a man who threw a cup of coffee in the face of a barista to hit-and-run accidents that resulted in death or disability.

Those couldn’t be removed, but they could be buried. It would take a lot of searching and a lot of patience to find that kind of result.

“What sort of searching are you doing?” Lili asked, as she came back downstairs.

“Remember that student who got drunk on campus last year?” I asked. “The one who knocked out a couple of windows of Birthday House?”

Birthday House was one of Eastern’s dormitories. The man who donated the money was named Hoare, and the college refused to name a dorm “Hoare House.” So they arranged for the donation to be announced on his birthday.

“That was all over the news,” Lili said. “Even the Philadelphia papers covered it because he knocked those windows out on his actual birthday. They made it a funny story, though didn’t the student get suspended for a while?”

We told Rochester to behave and went out to my car to drive down to the area of Stewart’s Crossing where Shimmy and Liz lived.

“He did,” I said. “But his parents were worried that when he graduated and went looking for a job, any company that researched him would pull up that prank. They hired a company to bury the information.”

“What do you mean, bury it?” Lili asked.

“Most people who use Google to search will find what they want in the first page or two of results and won’t keep reading beyond that,” I said as I backed down the driveway. “This company created a lot of webpages that made up stories about Eastern College and included the kid’s name. Like ‘Eastern College celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month,’ and they quoted him as a student, saying something about how important it was for college students to be aware of different cultures.”

“Did he really say that?”

“Of course not,” I said. “But if you Google his name, those pages come up first because they’re very content-rich for the terms you’re searching. There’s a science called Search Engine Optimization. By using the right terms, and cross-linking the pages to other similar sites, you can convince Google that your page or site is the best one to display to readers.”

“That sounds dishonest,” Lili said.

“There’s a fine line,” I said. “You could be a company that manufactures dish detergent, and when someone searches for that you want your products to come up first. That’s not dishonest, it’s just good business.”

“But what you’re talking about is on the other side of the line.”

“I agree. But look at it from the parents’ point of view. Their son made a mistake, and they don’t want his post-college career to be derailed because of it. If they can afford it, they do it.”

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.

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