The RIB: Dogged by Michael Fletcher
This was the first book I've read by Michael Fletcher. It's about the fall of a violent, tyrannical empire ruled by a demon emperor from the perspective of one of its most loyal soldiers, who's incredibly enthusiastic about the conquest of worlds and murder of innocents.
Maybe this would be abhorrent to some, but Fletcher makes it work by making this soldier a dog. A friendly, tail-waving, unquestioning dog. Or wardog to be exact: Dogged Determination is a large bipedal wardog, who doesn't question her happy existence of slaughtering enemies of the empire until something goes wrong with one of the empire's magical portals, and it slices her mate, Vigilant Assurance, in half. Her emotions are clear, simple, and big on the page. She's determined to find out who killed her mate, which starts Dogged on the path of the killer.
She's uniquely incompetent to investigate this, but gets a dispensation from the Demon Emperor's advisor to solve the mystery, with whatever resources she needs. This leads to Dogged commandeering a ship, and making friends with a sailor, Balen, after she murders the old captain (and inadvertently promotes Balen to become the new captain). Balen, and later, a new friend, treasure hunter Sahar, aren't afraid of Dogged's big, murderous presence.
Rather, they treat her as a friendly, lost canine that needs their help. Dogged's path puts her, and her companions, on a trail that leads directly to the culprits.
This is a solid character-based story and part of the charm is seeing Dogged bumble her way through the investigation, or navigate through social mores with her canine perspective. Dogged's mate, Vigilant Assurance, had an almost human perspective on life, and her frequent callbacks to him help her sort out her various moral quandaries and dealw with more complex situations than her world-view would suggest.
And yet, while this story is about one wardog trying to solve a mystery, it takes place against the backdrop of a crumbling empire. The narrative shifts into a war story, then a survival story. While there's a resolution to Dogged’s quest, there’s no tidy ending with all the threads neatly wrapped up.