Columbia author's latest detective tale is delightfully dog-eared pulp fiction

Even a down-and-out detective — perhaps especially a down-and-out detective — needs a mystery to solve. And the most hard-luck case private eye Peter Pike will ever face is his own.

Pike, a figment of Columbia author Neal Fandek's keen imagination, practically crawls through the opening chapters of "Peter Pike and the Silver Shepherd," the fifth book in the mystery series which tells his story.

Pike is homeless and cleft from his fiancee after his professional and personal lives collapse on each other. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, he is assigned a service dog — and man's best friend becomes the source of Pike's next preoccupation.

Each of Fandek's detective tales mingles a pulp-fiction style with oft-overlooked historical details. Previous titles dig around Mormon history, the possible romantic entanglements of Abraham Lincoln, Russian artifacts and more. This time out, Pike's new four-legged friend guides him into World War II-era history.

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The German shepherd works well alongside Pike, almost overzealous in its obedience, Fandek said; but its response to certain stimuli leads the detective down a wormhole of information, he added.

Wanting to know the dog's own history, and seeing a greater mystery unfold around them, Pike investigates Nazi attitudes toward animals and learns about the British "pet holocaust," a real event in which hundreds of thousands of pets were put down on the precipice of World War II.

The Pike series allows Fandek to satisfy his own historical questions, while pulling his protagonist into a lineage of pulp-fiction detectives. The gritty, no-nonsense literary style engages readers with action scenes and smart dialogue, Fandek said; pulp fictions also pull back the curtain on human behavior.

"Unsavory characters who have all kinds of secrets — discovering some of them," he said of the style's pleasures. "... The best pulp fiction, actually, shows us something about the human condition."

"Silver Shepherd" treats Columbia as a central character, placing Pike in the thinly-fictionalized Smithton. Within its city limits: a major university, some authentic modern Columbia landmarks and the Center for Humane Animal and Canine-Human Assimilation, another of Fandek's based-on-a-true-story inventions and the site where Pike encounters his new companion.

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Fandek has three more Pike novels plotted out, all of which remain set on the author's home turf. Fandek uniquely brings his personal history to each book. A longtime journalist with additional stints in finance, factories and on sea-faring vessels, he has plenty of experiences to offer.

"There’s no doubt about it — I put myself in interesting situations again and again," he told the Tribune in 2018. "By interesting, I mean sometimes not very good."

Meeting Pike halfway, he considers real-life moments, then projects Pike's path through the situation. The detective shares DNA with his creator, but Fandek casts the character in a different mold, bending his own ideas or perspectives in a fresh direction.

Pike resembles "what I’d like to be," Fandek said in 2018. Elaborating in light of his latest release, the author focused on Pike's reactions to less-than-ideal situations.

"I would shrink; he would not. He would react quickly; I would not," Fandek said.

That's not to say Pike handles everything well — far from it. Considering his arc from the beginning, Fandek eventually knew Pike would bear the brunt of some serious mistakes, that some of his most distinctive — and troubling — traits would catch up to him.

Redemption might become available to the detective but, more than anything, Fandek wants him to feel real and lived-in on the page, he said.

Fandek knows Pike's end, but also left a door open to continue the series beyond its planned conclusion. Meanwhile, he plans to follow the clues life has set out before him — reworking a once-discarded novel and plotting out Midwestern-centric nonfiction about historical moments and movements that are often neglected.

Learn more about Fandek, the series and the rest of his work at https://nealwfandek.com/.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. Find him on Twitter @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Peter Pike enters dog-eared pulp fiction tale in local author's latest