Hope McNeil works in the conservation department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She spends the majority her time at the museum toiling away behind the scenes, and for the most part, she’s okay with that – especially since the security guards allow her to smuggle her pug Max into the office with her.  But when the museum throws a high-profile Pug Night party in honor of one of its biggest benefactors, Hope and Max simply can’t resist the urge to crash it.

Hope tries to keep a low profile at Pug Night, but her efforts are thwarted when Max charges the guest of honor and causes the pug of honor to end up in the reflecting pool.  The pair flees the ensuing pandemonium and heads to Hope’s office seeking refuge, only to discover a priceless piece of art leaning carelessly against a wall of the Conservation Studio – one that’s supposed to be out on display.  Hope does a little digging, and uncovers a paper trail suggesting the painting was removed from its exhibit by someone in her department.  And to make matters even more complicated, closer examination reveals the painting in the Studio to be a fake.

Who stole the real painting?  Who painted the forgery?  Is a member of the conservation department responsible for the heist, or is someone trying to frame Hope and her colleagues?  Do Hope and Max have what it takes to solve the mystery and catch the thief?

A Pug’s Tale by Alison Pace isn’t so much a mystery as it is a breezy piece of chick lit featuring oodles of pugs and a rather amusing puzzle.  And that’s fine – just so long as that’s what you’re expecting when you crack open the cover.  If you go into A Pug’s Tale expecting a rip-roaring whodunit, however, you’re in for a bit of a disappointment.  The plot is unfocused, and the story just kind of meanders arbitrarily from scene to scene.  Pace’s narrative style is a tad frenetic and reads almost as though you’ve tapped into a direct feed from Hope’s stream of consciousness.  The stakes never feel all that high despite the fact that the object missing is worth quite a lot of money.  And Hope’s investigative technique is so amateur she makes Encyclopedia Brown look like Sherlock Holmes.

Where A Pug’s Tale really falls apart for me, though, is the sheer implausibility of the tale.  Most books require some suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, but for my money, A Pug’s Tale goes too far.  For starters, I just don't buy that three Metropolitan Museum of Art employees would discover the theft of a painting, and, rather than call the police (or even museum security), agree to hang a forgery on the wall and then hire a random private investigator to look into the matter.  I also don’t think the heist Pace designed is, strictly speaking, possible.  And the ending, while entertaining…  Well, I’ll just let you see for yourselves.

Hope makes for a compelling heroine, and Max is actually a fairly engaging character in his own right, but most of the other personalities who populate the story border on the ridiculous.  Rich, eccentric, pug-loving septuagenarian Daphne Markham is actually kind of charming in her extreme battiness, but when you add in the perpetually hysterical pug-phobic Gil Turner, the overly slick and completely unqualified PI Chaz Greene, and the Crazy Snack Lady who pushes her elderly shih-tzu around the park in a stroller, you start to feel a bit like you’ve stumbled into a farce.

If you’re looking for a smart, sharp page-turner of a mystery, don’t bother with this book; however, if you’re a pug-lover on the hunt for a fun, fluffy summer read, then you need look no further than Alison Pace’s A Pug’s Tale.

~ Kat