The Good Dog by Simon Rowell

Publisher's Synopsis

After gunshots echo through the summer night on Mount Macedon, Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer and her loyal service dog Harry race to the summit at first light. What they find looks like a grisly murder-suicide: an alleged fraudster named Piers Johnson, and his lawyer Antony Peterson, both dead from bullet wounds, a gun lying nearby.

Something about the scene doesn’t stack up. There are plenty of suspects, but no one seems to be telling the truth. Zoe’s instincts are ignited, as the pressure to find and charge the culprit becomes intense. And that’s when Peterson’s teenage daughter Sarah is snatched off the street. The Good Dog is Zoe’s toughest assignment yet, a murderous conspiracy of greed, deceit and violence. She knows that Harry may be her only chance to crack the case.

The 3rd book in the Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer series is all business as she takes on a double homicide case. The dead men, both shot to death at the top of Mount Macedon in Victoria, are Piers Johnson, a businessman and his lawyer Antony Peterson. Johnson had just been recently acquitted on a charge of fraud after 22 million dollars of investor’s money disappeared - Peterson was the lawyer who got him off. There are 22 million reasons why certain people might want these two men dead.

As with many police procedurals, the case begins with the requisite interviews of potential suspects. But after Zoe and her new partner Detective Senior Constable Ben Tarro have finished they’re none the wiser as to the identity of the shooter. It’s only when Antony Peterson’s daughter is abducted in broad daylight and demands are made to return the stolen money that real progress is made.

Although Zoe is the lead investigator on the case, this is very much a team effort with plenty of help coming from her technical team. In particular, many of the more significant breaks in the case came courtesy of mobile phone metadata which had been accessed and used to pinpoint where to look. This was a particularly interesting aspect of the case and definitely helped to keep things moving along at a solid clip.

In many respects, The Good Dog is your classic police procedural mystery thriller that’s been given a bit of spice through the inclusion of Harry, Zoe’s service dog. Zoe still suffers from PTSD brought about by a previous case. Harry provides her with support, most specifically by early detection of helicopter and drone sounds that set off Zoe’s panic attacks. By focusing on Harry, she’s able to manage her attacks.

That’s Harry’s primary role, and he’s been a comforting presence throughout all books in the series, there’s no doubt. But in this episode, we get to see him demonstrate a more complete range of his abilities and, true to the title of the book, these talents mark Harry as a very good dog indeed.

Having read all three books of the series to date, it has been interesting to watch Zoe’s development. It’s clear that she has become more confident and decisive in the way she runs her investigations. While the PTSD’s still there, the abiding presence of Harry has clearly played a big role in her progress. The result is a smooth investigation that is firmly guided by an assured hand and this also means there’s always a sense that things are progressing along.

I thought the introduction of Ben as her new (human) partner has been a promising one. Sure, he’s had to endure the usual tense moments as his new colleagues test him out, but he’s already proving himself to be a solid detective. This augurs well for future books, surely.

A well-plotted police procedural that contained a number of cleverly hidden surprises and a well organised investigation that required some intuitive police work, The Good Dog has added up to another entertaining mystery.