The Search, by Nora Roberts (Putnam, July 2010)
Ten years ago, Fiona Bristow was the sole survivor of the serial killer called the Red Scarf Killer. In a combination of luck, intelligence, and toughness, she escaped him. He didn’t forget, and came after her again, killing her cop fiancé and his K9 partner. But this time he was captured, and Fiona’s testimony helped to put him in prison for life.
Now she’s living a new life on the quiet Washington state island of Orcas, a professional dog trainer and a respected search-and-rescue volunteer. She has her friends including her stepmother Sylvia Bristow, her career, and her dogs Newman, Bogart, and Peck, and she’s happy. Or at least content. And something more than contentment may be in her near future. Artist Simon Doyle has recently moved to the island, and has been dragged into Fiona’s life by his new three-month-old Lab puppy Jaws, foisted upon him by his mother, who does not want him living completely alone. Jaws has been chewing everything, peeing and pooping everywhere, distracting him while he works, and not letting him sleep—and he has no idea what to do about it.
Jaws is just a normal, healthy, untrained three-month-old puppy, and Simon, for all his outward show of crankiness, is already bonded with him and truly wants to learn how to be a good dog owner. Fiona and Simon’s attraction to each other is a little more problematic for both of them, but they have plenty of time to work that out—until the past slams right back into the present, and a Red Scarf Killer copycat starts killing athletic twenty-year-old college women again.
Fiona is once again living with the need to be watchful, to guard against a psychopath coming after her. Both she and Simon are reluctant to admit that their attraction to each other is anything more than a transitory affair, but the circumstances force them to act on their underlying feelings. At first Simon spends the nights at Fiona’s; then, as the evidence mounts that the killer is indeed copying the Red Scarf Killer and is working his way toward Fiona, she and her dogs move in with him. The fatherly and supportive FBI agent who investigated the original Red Scarf Killer case, and supported Fiona through the trial, is back. Her friends are checking on her several times a day. And she’s being pestered by a reporter who, when she can’t get Fiona to talk to her, writes a big, splashy story anyway, with a detailed description of her home and semi-fabricated quotes—guaranteeing that the killer knows where she is.
Meanwhile, life goes on, and Fiona continues her business as a dog trainer and her volunteer search and rescue work. She learns more about Simon as both an artist and a man, while he learns about her as a woman, a dog trainer, and a vital part of search and rescue operations, on Orcas Island and surrounding areas.
This is a really satisfying story, both as a mystery and as a romance. Nora Roberts gets points, as always, for the fact that nobody does anything stupid just because the plot requires it. When they make mistakes, it flows directly out of their characters and experiences. These are well-rounded, developed characters who seem to have lives that began before the start of the book, and to continue after it ends.
Now, since dogs are so central to Fiona’s life, and this is a pet blog, I’m going to say a few things about the dogs and Fiona’s dog training. It’s really encouraging to see such an excellent picture of positive reinforcement training. Fiona uses treats, toys, and praise, along with firmness and consistency, to solve behavior problems, train basic obedience, and teach extremely complex behaviors that search-and-rescue dogs need. And yet she’s not afraid of the word “correction” or the word “no.” Sometimes dogs need the information that what they are doing is not a good idea, and you can provide that feedback without being harsh.
Another interesting detail is how she deals with the couple who have a vastly over-indulged, untrained, bossy, demanding, aggressive little Pom, who has lots of cute outfits and gets expensive treats. Fiona explains to them that they are the parents with the spoiled brat toddler who runs amuck and disrupts everything—and they get it, and the wife gets embarrassed about the outfits and the treats, along with other kinds of indulgence. I’m sure we can all name a prominent positive-reinforcement tv dog trainer who is absolute death on little dogs in outfits whose main purpose is to enhance a cute little dog’s cuteness. Not Fiona. Fiona tells the wife, if she and the dog enjoy the outfits and the treats, and they can afford the indulgence, why not? She and her husband just need to start teaching their little dog some rules and boundaries, give her more exercise, and give her more opportunities to use her brain. I loved that bit.
What I didn’t love is the passages with Simon’s Lab puppy, Jaws, doing serious agility activities, including climbing a ladder, when he’s somewhere around six months old—certainly not yet a year. Large breed dogs like Labs aren’t done growing until eighteen months or so, and they’re at risk for hip dysplasia. Vets and agility trainers don’t recommend starting any dog in agility or similar challenging athletic activities until age two, because it increases the risk of injury and of the eventual development of hip dysplasia. It’s a disappointment that in a book where the dogs might have been just a colorful detail, but instead are presented intelligently, as real dogs, and where the dog training is also so very good, this particular bit is wrong. And yet it’s not a fair complaint, because this isn’t a book about dogs, and the romance and the mystery are both excellently done.
Highly recommended.
Reviewer Bio:
Lis and AddyLis Carey is a librarian with an odd sense of humor, who finds excitement in helping people find the information they need, and in the varied corners of library work--reference, cataloging, circulation, resource development, reader's advisory. She reads voraciously and enjoys a wide variety of material--including, of course, fiction and non-fiction about dogs and cats. Addy, her Chinese Crested, is always happy to keep her company while reading, and occasionally tries to help write the reviews.
Check out her Blog Lis Carey's Library for more Book Reviews.