NO HOLDS BARRED

Two ex-cops—one human, one canine—investigate a dog-fighting ring in rural Wiltshire.

From the minute he sets foot in Great Ditton, Daniel Whelan (No Going Back, 2010) knows that someone wants him gone. First the young punk at the gas station follows him in a Ford pickup just to warn him to turn around and go home. When he gets to the Forester’s Cottage, his temporary digs, he finds the place ransacked and covered in creosote. Once he’s cleaned and aired the place, two masked thugs arrive, asking, "Why don’t you be a good boy and go back where you come from? We don’t want troublemakers round here." Worse yet, they almost capture his German shepherd, Taz, the companion who washed out of police service along with Daniel. Still, Daniel promised his boss, Fred Bowden, that he’d help Jenny Summers, owner of Maidstone Farm and more recently of Summer Haulage, find out who beat her husband, Gavin, and left him for dead in the drive. So Daniel toughs out the bullying of Taylor Boyd, in charge of the firm while Gavin remains unconscious, and his pals Dek Edwards and Macca MacAlister, so that he can keep driving for Jenny while he and Taz nose about for clues. When he sees two alleged boxer-Labrador crosses who look suspiciously like pit bulls in the Boyd family salvage yard, Daniel realizes that it wasn’t just a bar fight that sent Gavin Summers to the hospital and wonders if he’ll be the next.

Dog lovers will cheer this fast-paced tale that shows the worst and the best of man and beast.