Suspect by Robert Crais

 

 



Maggie is a canine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. Scott James is an LAPD cop. Maggie lost her handler to an IED in Afghanistan, and Scott lost his partner to gunmen. And both are suffering from PTSD when they're brought together in a K9 unit.

Robert Crais is a crime and thriller writer--it's what he's known for and the type of fiction he loves to read himself. So the thriller aspect of Suspect is good, but the story of Maggie and Scott is also outstanding. Their initial mistrust of one another grows into an unbreakable bond, one that most dog lovers will recognize.

Crais wanted to write this book as accurately as our current understanding of dog behavior would allow, so he researched deeply into how dogs think, what they feel, why they feel those things, how they process the world around them, and what motivates them to do what they do. The result is not only a pretty good crime story, but also a story about one man's love affair with a dog and that dog's devotion to a man and how they are both redeemed by that love.