[Dr. At Mystery 01] • Give a Dog a Bone

Dr. Atticus Klammeraffe, Dr. At for short, is not a morning person, but an early emergency call starts a series of events which land him in the middle of several mysteries.

Atty, as he is known affectionately by his friends, is a veterinarian with a house call practice on the north side of Chicago, bearing a passable resemblance to the actor Oliver Platt. He is a connoisseur of fine burgers and fries, likes his coffee black and strong, and never met a cheesecake he didn't like. He is assisted by the playfully nagging, shamelessly flirting Sheila, who operates a remote receptionist service and answers Atty's calls.

The mysteries start to pile up when an apparently simple illness fails to respond to Atty's best efforts at treatment. Then the unexpected death of another patient leads to a shocking discovery. Finally, a DOA dog, snagged by customs from a flight from Kazakhstan at O'Hare Airport, puts him in the middle of a Homeland Security smuggling investigation. There he meets Chicago cop Marcy Avers, who uses her skills as a police officer to track down the smugglers, and her feminine wiles to help Atty trace the source of a deadly infection.