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Dog on Fire
Kevin Sweeney and Joop Wheeler operate a small private investigative agency on the Massachusetts coast. They can’t always afford to be choosy about their clients; they take just about any case that comes their way. A young man wants to learn how his fiancée is really earning her money, an accused arsonist is worried his daughter is worshipping a pagan idol, the owners of an art gallery are unable to find a troubled painter, a family discovers a human skull in an old trunk, a photographer is stalked by a copycat. These are the sorts of clients who make their way into the offices of SeaCoast Investigations. Sweeney, a former police detective with a very Irish wife, is a thorough, dedicated, dogged investigator who knows his way around. Wheeler, transplanted to New England from South Carolina, takes a decidedly unorthodox approach to their work. Their clients are mostly normal people living mostly normal lives who find themselves in situations that are anything but normal—situations that call for the help of two men accustomed to working in that space between normality and serious weirdness. Together Sweeney and Wheeler get the job done. They may not take the most direct route to success—and they may define success differently than their clients—but they find a way. And they never give up.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 22, 2015
Sweeney and Wheeler, two detectives who couldn't be more different yet seem to compliment each other perfectly. One a northern ex-cop, the other a southern ex-journalist. Together they tease and taunt each other through the exceedingly random series of cases they get. While Joop Wheeler is easily my favourite of the two characters, Greg manages to write them both as unique, credible and likeable characters. Each case is enjoyable, not only to find out how the case is resolved (and there are twists, don't worry) but to enjoy how they get there.
It seems obvious that Greg enjoys writing these characters, and that feeling rubs off onto the reader. Hopefully his other Sweeney and Wheeler novel will get a rerelease...
It seems obvious that Greg enjoys writing these characters, and that feeling rubs off onto the reader. Hopefully his other Sweeney and Wheeler novel will get a rerelease...
November 21, 2011
I've just started wallowing in the short story form and came across this book from the excellent Gotham Writer's Workshop author, Greg Fallis. It's an excellent selection, with stories well chosen to complement each other and wonderfully drawn characters.
My favourite things about the book, though, are the plots of the stories. They are unexpected, different from your average whodunnit, and the interaction of Joop Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney as they solve each puzzle is magical to watch.
I love an O'Henry ending, and this book is full of them. It's also obviously written by someone who knows the life of a PI, but this knowledge is brought in casually and easily. It doesn't draw attention to itself as it is so quietly competent.
My only complaint is that there aren't enough of these stories. I want more!
My favourite things about the book, though, are the plots of the stories. They are unexpected, different from your average whodunnit, and the interaction of Joop Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney as they solve each puzzle is magical to watch.
I love an O'Henry ending, and this book is full of them. It's also obviously written by someone who knows the life of a PI, but this knowledge is brought in casually and easily. It doesn't draw attention to itself as it is so quietly competent.
My only complaint is that there aren't enough of these stories. I want more!
October 24, 2011
Greg Fallis's linked story collection has so much voice. The distinct characters of the two PIs come across so fully, so lived in, and neither is Fallis's own voice (as a nonfiction writer). There are particular delights here for photographers/collectors and for Gaelic speakers. My only complaint is that there remain signs of separate publication in the prepublished stories, but I'll forgive Fallis that, knowing the complexities of revising in that scenario, in exchange for the elegance of these stories and the charm of the characters.
November 15, 2011
Dog on Fire is a thoroughly enjoyable read. The two characters who narrate in turn the cases undertaken by a P.I. agency are both strong, although I find myself more drawn to Joop and his southern ways. This is crime fiction with a light touch - no satanic rituals or dismembered corpses, just good storytelling in easy to digest capsules. There's a nice amount of humour, particularly in the different approaches to their work taken by Joop and Sweeney and the dialogue feels authentic and snappy. Each case file (or chapter) has a quirky story to tell, from skulls in attics to Star Trek accessories. I'd be interested to read a full-length novel by this author - is Dog on Fire a taster for something more to come?
July 5, 2023
As I mentioned in my review of Greg's Lightning In The Blood, I bought Dog On Fire immediately upon finishing that book. I hadn't read any reviews so I was expecting another full-length novel, as opposed to a collection of short stories, which this is, and which I need to say is not a disappointment. Just making a statement here.
As with Lightning In The Blood, the stories are told in the voices of the private investigator team of Wendell "Joop" Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney, however the name of their agency has changed to SeaCoast Investigations from G & H. (I was kinda hoping that there would be mention of the name change in one of the stories but nope.) Also as with Lightning In The Blood, the chapters/stories alternate between one told in Wheeler's voice and one in Sweeney's. I didn't mention it in my previous review, but I like the change in tone and geographical diction (is that a term?) from one story to the next—from Joop's southern laid-back-ish-backporch-county-boy style to the more straight-laced-metropolitan-buttoned-up style of Sweeney.
The stories themselves are varied—from a guy's desire to check up on his fiancées' revenue stream to a robbery of a bar gone awry to a photographer's concern over someone replicating her images—and reflect, I assume, the variety of tasks, from the rather mundane to the dangerous, that private investigators perform in order for their businesses to remain solvent.
I have to say again that Greg's writing is fluid and easy reading, except maybe for the Irish phrases he tosses in from time to time. In most cases, he follows the phrase with its English translation, so I got used to skipping over the actual Irish words and not trying to pronounce them to myself. (When I came across the Irish in Lightning In The Blood, I was hoping that Google Translate would sound out the phrases for me, but alas, that feature is not included for Irish.) His sense of humour is ever-present and often had me snickering to myself.
One thing that struck me while reading both of the books is how he tosses his research into his narratives. From reading his blog, I'm very well acquainted with Greg's propensity to go off on tangents, which often means that he goes off on research jags to learn about something either central to or related to his blog-post essays. In his fiction, then, I have imagined him finding a way to insert these little tidbits of knowledge, by either having Wheeler or Sweeney explain a place or an event or a person or whatever to each other, or by having another character in the story inform the detectives. Greg is a clever fellow.
Something that I was not prepared for coming into my reading of either of Greg's books was the emotional investment I would make in Sweeney's wife, Mary Margaret, who is portrayed as a perfectly warm, funny, and lovely woman. I have a sneaking suspicion that there was at one time in Greg's past a Mary Margaret... a first-generation Irish woman with whom he had regular contact. Perhaps she was his investigative partner's wife (assuming he didn't go it alone as a P.I.); maybe she was the wife of another associate somewhere along the bendy path of his career-life; maybe she was an ex-love interest; maybe he briefly studied Irish with her. Whoever Mary Margaret is modeled upon, Greg had great fondness for her, just as Joop does for Mary Margaret, so when she shares a bit of news of a personal nature with Sweeney, it moved me.
So as I noted with Lightning In The Blood, the stories themselves, as interesting and a bit off the wall as they are, take a bit of a backseat to the characters, and Greg has made them seem real and believable.
My only real complaint with this book is that I want to know what the hell happened to Dora Bowditch.
As with Lightning In The Blood, the stories are told in the voices of the private investigator team of Wendell "Joop" Wheeler and Kevin Sweeney, however the name of their agency has changed to SeaCoast Investigations from G & H. (I was kinda hoping that there would be mention of the name change in one of the stories but nope.) Also as with Lightning In The Blood, the chapters/stories alternate between one told in Wheeler's voice and one in Sweeney's. I didn't mention it in my previous review, but I like the change in tone and geographical diction (is that a term?) from one story to the next—from Joop's southern laid-back-ish-backporch-county-boy style to the more straight-laced-metropolitan-buttoned-up style of Sweeney.
The stories themselves are varied—from a guy's desire to check up on his fiancées' revenue stream to a robbery of a bar gone awry to a photographer's concern over someone replicating her images—and reflect, I assume, the variety of tasks, from the rather mundane to the dangerous, that private investigators perform in order for their businesses to remain solvent.
I have to say again that Greg's writing is fluid and easy reading, except maybe for the Irish phrases he tosses in from time to time. In most cases, he follows the phrase with its English translation, so I got used to skipping over the actual Irish words and not trying to pronounce them to myself. (When I came across the Irish in Lightning In The Blood, I was hoping that Google Translate would sound out the phrases for me, but alas, that feature is not included for Irish.) His sense of humour is ever-present and often had me snickering to myself.
One thing that struck me while reading both of the books is how he tosses his research into his narratives. From reading his blog, I'm very well acquainted with Greg's propensity to go off on tangents, which often means that he goes off on research jags to learn about something either central to or related to his blog-post essays. In his fiction, then, I have imagined him finding a way to insert these little tidbits of knowledge, by either having Wheeler or Sweeney explain a place or an event or a person or whatever to each other, or by having another character in the story inform the detectives. Greg is a clever fellow.
Something that I was not prepared for coming into my reading of either of Greg's books was the emotional investment I would make in Sweeney's wife, Mary Margaret, who is portrayed as a perfectly warm, funny, and lovely woman. I have a sneaking suspicion that there was at one time in Greg's past a Mary Margaret... a first-generation Irish woman with whom he had regular contact. Perhaps she was his investigative partner's wife (assuming he didn't go it alone as a P.I.); maybe she was the wife of another associate somewhere along the bendy path of his career-life; maybe she was an ex-love interest; maybe he briefly studied Irish with her. Whoever Mary Margaret is modeled upon, Greg had great fondness for her, just as Joop does for Mary Margaret, so when she shares a bit of news of a personal nature with Sweeney, it moved me.
So as I noted with Lightning In The Blood, the stories themselves, as interesting and a bit off the wall as they are, take a bit of a backseat to the characters, and Greg has made them seem real and believable.
My only real complaint with this book is that I want to know what the hell happened to Dora Bowditch.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews