Name: Suspect
ISBN: 9780399161483

Robert Crais

Struggling to reclaim his career after the devastating murder of his partner eight months earlier, LAPD cop Max Kent is teamed with a traumatized military canine named Maggie who assists Max in an effort to track down his late partner's killer.

Suspect

Janice Hopper

I'm a sucker for books with dogs. 

This was a pretty good one. Mr. Crais has his dog info down pretty well. The story is of two injured souls, one canine and one human, who have been injured, and who need to recover, both physically and emotionally, from their traumas.

The police part of the story is the officer trying to find out who the villains were that killed his partner and shot him and left him for dead. He does that.

The only quibbles I have is that the whole "alpha" thing with dogs has been pretty much shown to be bogus. And IME dogs don't always bond so quickly with a new handler. It might be more specific to a military dog though, vs. pet dogs. 

I enjoyed it, but I don't know that I need to read any others in this series.

Lee Herman

Robert Crais does a great job of keeping the story moving, painting 3-dimensional characters (animal and human in this case). Set out to finish in 3 days so the book could go back to the library and ended up finishing it in one sitting. And then realized it was my second time reading it. Still a great read.

Amit Gawande

I enjoyed Suspect, almost most of it. But it is not a great book.

The story is too formulaic. The mystery is predictable. Most of the characters are not built well. Every plot "twist" can be seen chapters ahead. Even the narration is too simplistic. It is linear with the problems introduced in a chapter and solved right in the next one. There is simply no tension.

However, the overall book is a breezy read. No part gets boring. I especially liked the parts where it was just about Scott and Maggie, the German Shepherd. The bonding between them is developed really well. You care for both. And that's where lies the strength of the novel. I just wish it was backed by a nice crime mystery.

Suspect

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