Scan barcode
crysania's review
1.0
This book started off simple enough. It began as a mystery. A really simple mystery. A dog trainer goes to the house of a retired general to help train his fox terrier who is digging constantly. While there, the dog digs up a bone...a human bone. And it turns out the skeleton is of the general's wife who supposedly disappeared to Mexico 25 years ago. This should be simple enough -- rest of the book is about who killed her, right? Except...it's not. At this point, I would normally cut for spoilers, but seriously? This book was SO BAD I don't think anyone would bother reading it. I struggled through it and ultimately finished it only because I didn't want to feel like I had totally wasted my time.
The major problem with the book was that there were simply too many characters and too many subplots. I would put the book down at night, pick it up the next morning, and not really be clear on who was who and what was going on. There's the murdered wife issues...but then somehow you pick up some drug dealers, corrupt politicians and police officers, some dude with beagles who has something to hide, murdered high school students (who maybe were involved in the drug dealing or not), conspiracy theories, a daughter who tries to kill her father, an old man faking a coma and a guy faking being drunk, some random Korean evil dude, a "hunting lodge" where some sort of nefarious things go on, a woman who had an affair with a politician when she was only 15...and more. Add to this a main character who was entirely unlikeable -- arrogant and uninteresting. I'm quite sure he was the author's Mary Sue. And then mix in random plot points that were so utterly unbelievable. I mean, here's this guy. A dog trainer. In a mystery novel. He gets locked up into a room by the corrupt politicians and on the table there's a magazine and a book. The book? It's a mystery about a dog trainer. Um really? Because these things are pretty common, right?
And then you toss in a really stereotyped black foster kid. Every sentence this kid said had the word "yo" in it. Really. Every time he spoke it was like "yo, and with eggs and bacon, yo." I didn't even know he was supposed to be black until halfway through and then when I found that out, my reaction was "ohhh that explains the horrible stereotyped speech." The kid also had NO POINT in being in the story. He was just...there. Of course, he had his own subplot entirely not related to any of the random mysteries going on. But he could have been dropped from the story without anyone even caring.
I should also add that the main character (and, I'm assuming, the guy who wrote it) has some whacko ideas about dog training too. At one point in the book, he brings along a male dog to meet another male dog who is aggressive to male dogs. This is the first time he's met this dog. And how does he "treat" the problem? By taking them out for a walk together. And then suddenly, the dog is CURED. Really? Aggression cured just by taking one walk? The dog goes from threatening all male dogs to going out to strip clubs and drinking shots of bad whiskey with them. I bet real animal behaviorists would laugh their asses off over that one.
The whole book was really just an exercise in frustration. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. And that's being kind to the book.
The major problem with the book was that there were simply too many characters and too many subplots. I would put the book down at night, pick it up the next morning, and not really be clear on who was who and what was going on. There's the murdered wife issues...but then somehow you pick up some drug dealers, corrupt politicians and police officers, some dude with beagles who has something to hide, murdered high school students (who maybe were involved in the drug dealing or not), conspiracy theories, a daughter who tries to kill her father, an old man faking a coma and a guy faking being drunk, some random Korean evil dude, a "hunting lodge" where some sort of nefarious things go on, a woman who had an affair with a politician when she was only 15...and more. Add to this a main character who was entirely unlikeable -- arrogant and uninteresting. I'm quite sure he was the author's Mary Sue. And then mix in random plot points that were so utterly unbelievable. I mean, here's this guy. A dog trainer. In a mystery novel. He gets locked up into a room by the corrupt politicians and on the table there's a magazine and a book. The book? It's a mystery about a dog trainer. Um really? Because these things are pretty common, right?
And then you toss in a really stereotyped black foster kid. Every sentence this kid said had the word "yo" in it. Really. Every time he spoke it was like "yo, and with eggs and bacon, yo." I didn't even know he was supposed to be black until halfway through and then when I found that out, my reaction was "ohhh that explains the horrible stereotyped speech." The kid also had NO POINT in being in the story. He was just...there. Of course, he had his own subplot entirely not related to any of the random mysteries going on. But he could have been dropped from the story without anyone even caring.
I should also add that the main character (and, I'm assuming, the guy who wrote it) has some whacko ideas about dog training too. At one point in the book, he brings along a male dog to meet another male dog who is aggressive to male dogs. This is the first time he's met this dog. And how does he "treat" the problem? By taking them out for a walk together. And then suddenly, the dog is CURED. Really? Aggression cured just by taking one walk? The dog goes from threatening all male dogs to going out to strip clubs and drinking shots of bad whiskey with them. I bet real animal behaviorists would laugh their asses off over that one.
The whole book was really just an exercise in frustration. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. And that's being kind to the book.
amdame1's review
3.0
Dog trainer, Jack Field, is on the case again when a body is dug up by a dog in a retired general's yard.
Like the dog training aspect and the characters.
Like the dog training aspect and the characters.
More...