Rain Dogs
Sean Doolittle
Dell, Jan 2006, $6.99
ISBN 0440242819

His daughter would have turned five yesterday if she had not died. Former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman celebrated the day by getting drunk in a cheap motel room. His marriage ended with their child's death so no one will care except perhaps the lawyers at Tyler & Tyler in the "Heart City" Valentine, Nebraska. They expected him three days ago to discuss the will of his late grandfather Parker, who he had only seen a few times as the man had turned into a cantankerous hermit since his wife died.

Tom mulls over what to do with the canoe business on the Niobrara River his grandfather left him. He figures he has nothing else so why not make a go at it though he is not so certain about the pot using employee Duane Foster he also inherited. Tom also hopes to hook up with his college girlfriend widow Abby though he is not as certain about her unruly teenage stepson Scott. The DEA scrutinize Tom when a methyl-amphetamine lab blows up near his property. Unable to stop his journalist genes, Tom, over the warning from the local and federal law enforcement, investigates drug trafficking in the heartland.

The key to this powerful crime thriller is Tom who holds the exciting story line together with his shaky relationships with his family, his ex, and his new acquaintances. In many ways his only friend is the bottle though he tries to score with Abby even as he cannot stand the moody Scott. The drug investigation is cleverly devised so that the reader obtains a strong mystery, but the RAIN DOGS belong to Tom terrific, who drinks to hide his loneliness and fear that he is just like his grouchy grandfather.

Harriet Klausner