I ended up liking this book okay. I had to refresh my memory of some old literature in order to get some of the references and if you are not familiar with Lovecraft there is a whole chapter that won't make any sense at all. Though I realize it was written in 1993, the book does refer to Romani people as Gipsies; it does not appear to disparage them in any other way. 

The book is quirky and humorous and narrated from the point of view of a dog. For what it's worth my money was on the cat to win the game, she was my favorite character. Always bet on the cat.