Pool of Tears, a Murine Memoir

It’s not easy, being a talking mouse. Add to that a bum leg and a couch potato figure, you have Dorothy Mustt, heroine of Angus Brownfield’s enterprising new novel, Pool of Tears, first book of the Mustt Adventure series.
Talkers, as they call themselves, are the product of failed genetic research—failed in the eyes of its lead investigator. She’s created mice with speech and opposable thumbs, but much more, the ability to reason. They’re so smart, in fact, they adopt a Prime Directive: “Never, ever talk to a Human.” Why? Because they fear they’ll be exploited or worse, exterminated. Their muteness almost gets them euthanized, but for the weak stomach of the animal caretaker assigned the task.
Talkers have language but lack culture, both a curse and a blessing. They look at the world with the innocence of Adam and Eve before the Fall. Dorothy and her kin study humans via the ultra-dysfunctional family whose house they share and through endless hours in front of a TV set that’s always blaring. Their speech is John Wayne overlaid with Nova.
Dorothy falls in love with a human and can’t handle the emotion. She becomes a Candide with four legs, a Cyrano with twitchy whiskers, an overweight Madame Bovary. Energized by her emotions, she pits herself against a mouse tyrant, becomes the protégé of a bohemian mouse sage, and eventually breaks the Prime Directive in the name of love.
A mix of adventure and satire (plus some interspecies infatuation), Pool of Tears will leave you wanting more of Dorothy and the Talkers.