Wow, it’s good to be back. If you visited this site over the past several days, you probably saw a “suspected malware” warning, which was extremely upsetting to me. I hired a company to scan the site, and the problem was my WP software and some other plug-ins and files were outdated. I don’t always upgrade right away because sometimes the new versions are full of bugs (Apple Maps, anyone?), but I’ve updated everything, installed extra security plug-ins, and Google has removed the warning. It’s important for me to make clear I’d NEVER knowingly install or host malware of any kind.
Anyway, on to some good stuff. Thanks to Lydia at Putnam, I get to give away an advance reading copy of Robert Crais’s highly anticipated Suspect, which doesn’t come out until January 22, 2013, but you can have the ARC before Christmas if you’re good. And lucky.
This is a standalone featuring LAPD’s Officer Scott James and his new partner Maggie, a former military working dog retrained for the K-9 platoon. They’ve both suffered on-the-job injuries—physical and emotional ones—and the deaths of their former partners. Together they track the killers of Scott’s previous partner, and learn to trust and heal each other along the way.
I think you will fall in love with Maggie; she made me cry. Crais writes several chapters in Maggie’s POV and, based on my former ownership of a German shepherd, her thoughts and actions seem spot on. The relationship between her and Scott is life-affirming.
For a chance to win the ARC, share an amazing dog story in the comments. Could be about your dog, someone else’s, one you read about, or saw on YouTube. Let’s make this a celebration of our four-legged friends. I’ll take entries only until this Sunday, December 16 at 9 p.m. PST. US addresses only.
As with my other giveaway, please only enter if you can check back to see if you’ve won because I may not get around to contacting you by email. The winner will be randomly chosen, announced here on December 17, and have 48 hours to claim the ARC before I select someone else.
In related news, the Kindle version of L.A. Requiem, a game changer in Crais’s Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, is on sale for only $1.99. Don’t know how long it’ll stay at that price so grab it now.
9 Comments
Jann
December 10, 2012 at 2:28 pmWell, it’s not exactly an amazing story, but it’s important to me (and hubby). Way back in 1999 after hubby was diagnosed with MS, he declared that he wanted a dog. Now, I have nothing against dogs, but we already had two cats and two kids, 5 and 9 years old. Hubby traveled for business and we technically weren’t allowed to have a dog, but the very idea brightend him up so much, how could we say no? After much deliberation, we settled on a Wheaten Terrier. Murphy spent the next 13 years growing with the kids, loving us to death, and being a wonderful companion in every way. When he died last December 14 (a day before the kids could get home to say goodbye), hubby was too overcome to think about another dog. Not me. I needed to fill that space. We had already decided that if and when we got another dog, it would be a rescue. I searched high and low, but the only affordable rescue dogs around were pits and chihuahas. Not for me. Then on January 7 when I was about to give up on Craigslist, I hit refresh and there he was! The saddest little face you could imagine, part corgi, part lab, with a bum forepaw. I fell in love instantly, called the contact, and was told we could have him, FREE, if we could get there asap. Almost a year later Jake the Dog has become an invaluable part of the family. Oh, the cats like him, too!
Leanne
December 10, 2012 at 5:00 pmGrrr, not available in Australia! Both the competition & the Kindle edition of L.A. Requiem!!
I have a lovely dog story, regardless. My ex-husband’s Guide Dog, Saxon, worked with him for 7 years as his eyes everywhere he went, and was always so happy to put on his harness and go to work – even as he developed arthritis, and would hobble off his bed and wag his tail at the front door, ready to go out. The day my husband started training with a new dog, and he had to hang up Saxon’s harness for good, was so sad. He couldn’t understand why the harness wasn’t going on him, and for a few weeks he still ran eagerly to the front door at the sound of the new dog’s harness being taken off it’s hook.
We kept him as a well loved member of the family, and now he spends his days relaxing on his bed enjoying his well-earned retirement (except for at feed time – he can still prance around as well as his younger friend as soon as the food bin lid comes off!! Greedy Labradors!).
Carol Wong
December 10, 2012 at 5:55 pmI would love to win this police thriller.
Thank you for this giveaway.
Shell Sherree
December 10, 2012 at 5:58 pmI can give you a US address for this, PCN, so I’m in! {I’ll be paying to have it sent here, so you know how much it would mean to me if I could be so lucky… I’ll have to find some extra fingers to cross.} If based on heart-touching personal dog stories, I’m afraid I’m already out of the running after reading Jann and Leanne’s. But here goes with a hand-me-down puppy tale. Something I first saw a few months ago dissolved me into tears, both happy and sad, and still does whenever I see it. This is what love is made of. I won’t post a link but well circulated on the web is a photo of 19 year old dog Shoep being cradled in his father’s arms one warm night in Lake Superior. Shoep suffers dreadfully from arthritis, but falls asleep every night when he is carried into the lake. The buoyancy of the water on a warm night soothes his bones. John rescued Shoep as an 8 month old puppy, and he’s been by his side through many adventures. Since the photo {taken by their friend Hannah Hudson} went viral, donations have helped John find more treatments to ease Shoep’s pain. Life is beautiful.
Ronnie Sowell
December 10, 2012 at 6:18 pmI got “Wolf” from a friend of mine who ran a pawn shop and raised him from a pup. Wolf was 1 part timber wolf and resembled a German Shepard, sort of. But when there was a full moon you knew the difference!
Anyway he was never aggressive, but one morning I found a dead fox in Wolf’s pen. I surmised that the fox entered Wolf’s domain to eat his food. Wolf simply bit it once and dropped him where I found him.
The wife insisted I contact DHEC in case the fox was rabid. I did and they wanted to come get Wolf’s head because in SC a wild animal can’t have a rabies shot. (I had gotten him one in NC.)
I managed to forestall them until the test came back on the fox… no rabies. Wolf lived several more years and died one night in his sleep in my backyard. Great dog!
Thanks for entering me in the contest.
Paulette
December 10, 2012 at 6:23 pmOur “replacement” dog, Greta Garbo, is a Vizsla–a hunting breed known for their swimming abilities complete with webbed feet. We had to teach her how to swim! She is also deathly afraid of surfboards, so our beach adventures are amusing.
Should I be so lucky as to win this, I give my win to Shell Sheree. Yes, indeed, life is beautiful.
Eirego
December 11, 2012 at 11:42 amRex was the greatest dog a boy could hope for and he was shared by me and my brothers, but he got up with me every day and ran alongside me while I delivered newspapers. Because of that fact, I considered him more my German Shepherd than my siblings’.
Some of those mornings in New England were evil cold. Many Winters gave us snowdrifts taller than houses! And, yet, Rex came right alongside me climbing mounds of cold white fluffy long before the town snowplows began their rounds. Some mornings I would be so tired I would forget to deliver a paper and just jog past a house, but Rex would stop and bark at me until I went back to that house.
On one of these particularly stormy pre-dawn moments, Rex stopped abruptly. He didn’t bark, he just growled low and angry.
“That family is out of town, so they stopped the paper.”
Rex wouldn’t budge, just kept growling. I turned to see what was going on. We were about to take one of the many shortcuts on my route. This one was across a wide open field bordering a thick section of woods. Rex’s growl was focused on the far end of the field, just at the edge of the tree line. The field in Summer was a bed of tall, blond grasses, but Winter snow had tamped it down making it a flat, white landscape. Moving on two legs, but hunched over was …something! It was black-ish brown and about 200 yards away. I could tell it was furry. I couldn’t make out any kind face or snout. I didn’t know what the hell it was. Rex barked once. Loud and echoing at 5am. The thing stopped and turned to look at us. Panicked, I dropped flat to the ground, hoping it didn’t see me. Rex barked at it again. I looked up to see the thing loping toward us. Really fast! I decided the LeBreques and Churchills weren’t getting their paper until later on in the day. Rex made a couple of bounds toward it. I yelled at him and we took off toward home. I don’t recall my feet touching the ground until I made it to my front porch.
Mom met me at the door with breakfast and the news they had cancelled school for the day. I phoned some friends and told them what happened. Yes, they were up for it in broad daylight. Five of us and Rex, went across the field to where I had seen it. We all carried something. I had a pack with some water and plaster of paris to make a mold. And a hatchet, of course. One of my dumber friends carried a very impractical sledgehammer, but that was the way Randy was.
We found tracks we didn’t recognize, took molds of them, and went to the police, bbut no one took us seriously and laughed us out of the station. The day ended with all of us thawing out in front of the fire and telling scary stories we’d heard our parents tell. Mom made a couple of apple pies and didn’t judge us. I’m pretty sure Rex got an extra bone to chew on.
In the morning, I hefted the newspapers into my sack and stood on my porch. I swear I was just thinking, clearing my head. Rex was dancing around, ready to go. I wasn’t. Finally, he came up onto the steps beside me and nudged the back of my legs forward. I laughed. And we were off into the day.
They had to put him down while I was in college. He had gotten old and was stating to nip at people. Mom told me over the phone. I went back to my room and cried.
Anita Yancey
December 12, 2012 at 5:22 amI don’t really have any amazing dog stories. But the dog we had was pretty amazing to us. She was a terrier mutt. She watched over our daughter growing up. She would even kill snakes to protect our daughter from getting bitten. She was a great guard dog and protector. Our daughter named her Jasmine and she lived for 17 years. We really miss her. Thanks for having this giveaway.
rhonda
December 14, 2012 at 6:49 pmWe lost our golden boomie 2years ago we were heartbroken. My husband started volunteering. At a dog shelter months passed both of us in deep mourning.one day my husband told me about a littleshiitsupoodle that had been dropped. Off how he shook when my husband tried to get him for a walk my husband sat down and eventually. The little guy jumped into his lap.from then on when my husband was at the shelter this puppy was in his arms. He brought. Me to meet him love at first sight.a day later our little Henry came home to us and though our hearts still ache for our golden Henry has brought major joy to our home.