Missing dog mystery is on Mass. author's mind

BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — Dennis Lehane has a new mystery on his mind, but it's not something the best-selling author can control from behind a keyboard.

The crime novelist and his family started an all-out search after their rescue beagle Tessa escaped from their yard on Christmas Eve.

The 47-year-old is surprised by the media attention the search is attracting, and thinks it has to do with his offer to name a book character after whoever finds Tessa.

Word of the search has spread so much that Lehane even heard from a San Francisco dog psychic who offered help.

The dilemma arrived as the author of books including "Mystic River" and "Gone, Baby, Gone" faces a Friday deadline.

It's for a movie script based on his short story "Animal Rescue," timing he says may be "sadistic irony."