by Barbara Kelley
Flashback is book #9 in the Erin O'Reilly K-9 Mystery series by Steven Henry. This book is a story of a variety of PTSD traumas. Erin O'Reilly has several horrifying dreams of her human partner, Vic Neshenko and her K-9 partner, Rolf, as well as other members of her team being mowed down from an assault rifle. This is one of the most common forms of PTSD suffered by first responders, such as police, fire fighters, and war veterans. I had a friend many years ago who was shot by her ex-husband, and when she came back to work from the hospital, there was a loud banging sound from the warehouse. It was so loud that she screamed and crawled under desk with her hands over her ears. My brother was in the navy for 6 years, and when he came home, he had nightmares about everything he went through. It has been over 35 years and he still has nightmares sometimes. One of the characters in this story is the guy that diffuses bombs, and he had it right when he says that "thanking someone for their service" is not all it's cracked up to be. The words are meaningless when it comes down to the fact that 99% of soldiers see nothing but death while they are in the war. My nephew was out in the battlefield, guns a-blazing, and he wound up holding his dying friend in his arms. How does "thank you for your service" comfort him? I know it would not comfort me.
I could also look at Erin's nightmares as visions of the future, or premonitions, and how to stop these nightmares from becoming a reality.
Isn't it wonderful how most dogs can feel their mama's or papa's stress levels and calm them down with the wag of a tail? Rolf is one of my heroes in this series of books. He's beautiful, happy or sad when Erin is happy or sad, and I think everybody, whether they have PTSD, benefits from the friendship of a dog. I used to have a dog around me at all times, but I am too disabled now to take care of one. I hope to get a dog again someday.
Ian, Carlyle's bodyguard, was a marine in a former life. But once a soldier, always a soldier. He tells Erin some things she didn't know, like when a soldier comes home from a war, the war comes home with that soldier. They have flashbacks, and they see the enemy right in front of them, instead of the innocent people who are actually standing there. So, sometimes, totally innocent people get killed because of these flashbacks.
Erin, Rolf, and Vic went through a terrible napalm fire, and lived to tell about it, and proving that the good guys do sometimes win in the end, even when their hair and skin are burned. War wounds! That is what this scene reminds me of.
I continue to like the romantic relationship between Erin and Carlyle. I really, really, really hope that if her family (her mom and dad and brothers) ever find out that she is in love with Carlyle, that her family will welcome him with open arms, literally shocking the daylights out of Erin and everyone else around her.
I also have one complaint: the story about Ian called Dehydration was impossible for me to download. Is there a website I can go to, so that I can get this story, even if I have to pay for it?
I gave Flashback 5 stars.