A review by danaisreading
Knowledgeable Creatures by Christopher Rowe

3.0

An ex-police dog turned detective is asked to investigate a human professor's murder. Things go badly.

One paragraph of world-building, but it's intriguing enough that I would read more set in this universe:
"What cannot be denied is that it’s the alchemical processes developed by Isaac Newton and his partner Xerxes, the first publicly acknowledged learned mouse, which led to the so-called Flowering, the world-wide, centuries-long explosion of new knowledgeable creatures, from Nox, the first curious cat awoken by Newton and Xerxes, on down to every philosophical pig and argute crow today. On down to every investigative dog—including, of course, me."