J. M. Griffin. Left Fur Dead. Kensington, 2019.

Well, we are big fans of the Chet and Bernie mysteries. One key reason is that the tales are told from Chet the dog’s perspective. Left Fur Dead includes a pet rabbit that helps solve a crime. Will this be similar?

The short answer is no. The rabbit’s owner, Juliette Bridge, narrates the story. Her pet rabbit, Bun, has telepathic powers, so Juliette (“Jules”) gets messages from the rabbit in her head. Now the rabbit does have senses that people do not have. Like Chet, Bun notes scents. Being a prey animal rather than a predator, Bun is also fairly sensitive when it comes to registering people’s emotions, especially anger or calm. Interesting, but no one would confuse it with the lapin language of Watership Down.

We were willing to suspend our disbelief to read the story, and having done that, we accepted the premise. In the first chapter Ms. Bridge, accompanied by Bun, discovers a body on her property, a wooded farm in a small New Hampshire town. It is winter, and the body is half frozen. She cannot identify him, but it turns out she knows him.

Jules operates a rabbit rescue farm. During our story she is caring for fifteen bunnies including Bun. Some were turned over to her because an owner moved or died, but most were there because they were victims of abuse, including Bun. She occasionally takes some of her rabbits for entertainment or educational purposes to schools. libraries, and birthday parties. Occasionally, at those parties and other events Arty the Mime puts on a show. She never met him without his mime makeup, so she really did not know what he looked like, but it turns out that the victim she discovers is Arty.

It is complicated because the last few times they met, Arty would lecture her that keeping pet animals is wrong. Never mind that she is rescuing them, that they are domesticated, and that they are not even native to the Americas, Arty becomes quite vehement. Jules feels like he has changed from the old Arty she knew, but because they were witnessed arguing, she becomes a suspect in his murder.

Meanwhile, it appears that someone has been trying to break into the rescue barn. Jules has witnessed an intruder, maybe two, and this person seems to want to do some damage as well as release the rabbits into the wild. Once, a number of cages were opened, but rabbits being rabbits, only one ran out, the rest remained, if not in their cages at least near their homes.

Jules, of course, wants to deflect suspicion from herself, so she tries to do a little sleuthing on her own. In what is now a stock conflict in mysteries, the local sheriff warns her not to get involved. Still, she gleans some information that could help solve the mystery of Arty’s demise.

We also meet a number of other people who are related to Juliette’s farm in some way. There is Jessica, finishing up her veterinarian degree and hoping to start a practice in town. Jules offers her an available portion of the barn for her clinic. After Jules’ close call with an intruder, Jessica offers to stay at Jules’ home with her until the mystery of the intruders is solved.

There are also some college students who work at the barn and the shop connected to it and some high school students who volunteer with the rabbits to work off their public service requirements for school. Jules also discovers that a homeless veteran has been camping in her back woods. He seems harmless, if a little troubled, but the sheriff learns that his military record was exemplary. We also meet the ill-tempered previous owner of Bun.

Bun does not have quite the personality that Chet has, but we do see rabbit qualities come through her telepathic messages. Bun is at heart a true rabbit, not an anthropomorphic character like Bugs Bunny. We won’t get any wild puns or plots or disguises from Bun, but she does provide an interesting angle on the story. She may not bark, but she does bite.