Written by neurodivergent minds.

Jo McRae has spent most of her life feeling like everyone else was given the instruction manual and hers was accidentally thrown away. Recently diagnosed AuDHD in her late thirties, grieving her mum, and now apparently starring in perimenopause’s own special-effects reel, Jo is mostly just trying to get through the day - until a phone call, a lie about a broken-down car, and five words she can’t shake (“I didn’t have a choice”) pull her into a murder nobody else seems interested in investigating. With the reluctant help of her flamboyant colleague Callum, sharp-tongued Maggie, and a collection of eccentric locals who really should probably be questioned by someone, Jo starts pulling at a thread that leads somewhere much darker than she expected.

Long ago, in the courts of ancient China, pugs were said to be more than mere pets - they were guardians of the royal family, and legend told of a pug prince born once every thousand years, marked by the sacred royal wrinkles, destined to unite the pug kingdom in times of great upheaval. Long dismissed as a bedtime story, the prophecy is stirring again. A hilarious, heart-thumping adventure where loyalty runs deep, tails wag hard, and the bond between humans and dogs could be the key to saving everything.