Song of pilothead sound, the

The second book of the DOPS series is funnier, bawdier and scarier by turn as Cass & Co. get themselves into predicaments the well-meaning Canines & other four-leggeds who surround them can only observe with mild astonishment & tolerance. The series gallops on into forbidden love & social taboos at their most outrageous, hilarious & heartbreaking, as well as the horrors of dark spiritual inheritances left un-confronted, the joy of Godly mantels newly discovered, & technology at its most terrifying as it seeks to bridge the forbidden gap between the spirit & natural realms. Despite the sometimes laugh-out-loud humor & bawdy romps into R-rated territory later in the series, the epic contains a formidable warning as well as a beacon of hope, for many of the pretur/supernatural events adapted into the storyline are true occurrences (names/locations changed, of course).Characters introduced in the first book are now fleshed out, including the Masai prayer-detective Cyrus Mbembwe & his sidekick, the Reverend Magnus, pastor of a local chapel who happens to be a Neopolitan Mastiff; Uncle Peter, a gifted toymaker, Ken & Cheryl Takamura, breeders of tree-climbing giant Poodles, Mohawk physician John Birdee, ex-mob boss Vic Mastrani, veterinarian Emerie Hartleib & his three hyena companions, & former Russian Orthodox monk "Connie" Petrovkavich among them.Sixteenth-century Aztec lord Kyeto Tlatli & his Mestizo hermit friend Lazario Belle-Aves are introduced, as are art teacher Rachael Holloway & former shrimp boat captain Capn Cholley, who becomes a surrogate father to Cass as Vic does to Lawrie. The location shifts from Maine to Bolivia to a cruise ship in the tropics as old friends of Casss are re-introduced, miraculously inserted into the tapestry of suspense and friendship that always comes home to Pilothead Sound.