Dog on Fire

Kevin Sweeney and Joop Wheeler operate a small private investigative agency on the Massachusetts coast. They can't always afford to be choosy about their clients; they take just about any case that comes their way. A young man wants to learn how his fiancée is really earning her money, an accused arsonist is worried his daughter is worshiping a pagan idol, the owners of an art gallery are unable to find a troubled painter, a family discovers a human skull in an old trunk, a photographer is stalked by a copycat. These are the sorts of clients who make their way into the offices of SeaCoast Investigations.

Sweeney, a former police detective with a very Irish wife, is a thorough, dedicated, dogged investigator who knows his way around. Wheeler, transplanted to New England from South Carolina, takes a decidedly unorthodox approach to their work. Their clients are mostly normal people living mostly normal lives who find themselves in situations that are anything but normal—situations that call for the help of two men accustomed to working in that space between normality and serious weirdness.

Together Sweeney and Wheeler get the job done. They may not take the most direct route to success—and they may define success differently than their clients—but they find a way. And they never give up.