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From
The Best Reviews
Octogenarian
Cora Mulheisen and others protest an environmental outrage outside
a Detroit suburban courthouse when a bomb explodes. Cora is
unconscious and taken to the hospital. Her son, Detroit Police
department Detective Sergeant Fang Mulheisen retires to care
for his mother. Homeland Security Task Force Lieutenant Colonel
Vernon Tucker tries to recruit him to join his team looking
into the bombing, but Fang says no though once his mom heals
he has plans to learn the truth.
In
Montana, Joe Service, retired from the mob, plans to lead a
simple life with his lover Helen Sedlacek. However, his domestic
tranquility is interrupted when he learns that an informer he
failed to kill is coming for him and his beloved.
Cora
begins to recuperate, but remembers little from that day. Still,
Fang realizes she could be a target since she witnessed much
of the tragedy. He decides to go after who he believes is his
mom's enemy. To keep Helen safe, Joe decides to confront the
informer away from her. While Tucker manipulates people including
Joe and Fang, they converge on terrorist Martin Parvis Luck,
their apparent mutual enemy.
The
latest Mulheisen mystery is an action-packed, often humorous
antiterrorism tale. The fast-paced story line contains intriguing
heroes battling with one another as much as with their common
foes. The skirmishes between Fang and Joe are delightful as
both needs the other to succeed yet neither can trust a person
from the opposite side of the law. Though the villains seem
more suited for the Keystone Cops, Jon A. Jackson joyfully jolts
his audience with this fine thriller.
Harriet
Klausner
Editorial
Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The 10th installment in Jackson's series to feature Detective
Sergeant Mulheisen (after 2002's Badger Games) delivers sturdy
entertainment, though the post-9/11 plot hinges on the sometimes
confusing interactions among Mulheisen, criminal Joe Service
and FBI operative Colonel Vern Tucker. The bombing of a municipal
building that nearly kills Mulheisen's mother leads the detective
to the backwoods of Michigan, where he's threatened by militias
and the enigmatic M.P. Luck, who's perhaps the book's most intriguing
character. Meanwhile, Service, after settling down into a new
life with his common-law wife Helen Sedlacek, finds himself
in danger from unknown parties. He seeks out Mulheisen, and
together they work to untangle a mystery that involves Luck,
various governmental agencies and an old nemesis. Inevitably,
they fall in with Tucker, who likes to play factions in the
intelligence community against each other while advancing his
own shadowy aims. Fortunately for our heroes, the bad guys are
often ineffectual and less than bright. Despite what seem like
high stakes, no one ever really suffers because of those stakes—everyone's
just a little too nice. A subplot in which Sedlacek searches
for her missing previous husband feels like padding. The ending
neither disappoints nor rises above reader expectations; it
could easily be the climax of a solid action film.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From
Booklist
With La Donna Detroit (2000) and Badger Games (2002), the focus
of Jackson's superb series has been more on Mob fixer Joe Service
and his lover, former Mafia princess Helen Sedlacek, and less
on the nominal series hero, Detroit cop Fang Mulheisen. Fang
returns this time, although now as an ex-cop, having retired
to nurse his mother after she was injured in an apparent terrorist
bombing of a suburban Detroit courthouse. That bombing has the
curious effect of making partners of former antagonists Service
and Mulheisen. Joining forces for different reasons to track
down the bombers, these strange bedfellows--two of the most
appealing, well-grounded characters in the genre--traipse about
in the woods near Traverse City, sparring with a local militia
roughneck. Jackson tackles the whole Patriot Act mess from an
engaging everyman point of view, showing how "homeland
security" offers a convenient umbrella under which cammo-wearing
crackpots can raise havoc. Crackpots notwithstanding, this installment
offers a thoroughly entertaining, if rather light interlude
in a usually quite dark series. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Summary
In No Man's Dog Jon A. Jackson's longtime hero "Fang"
Mulheisen is back for a volatile confrontation with his old
nemesis, Joe Service. Add to the mix drug dealers, international
terrorists, federal agents acting outside the law, and the hellish
fury of crime-babe Helen Sedlacek, and you have a Molotov cocktail.
The novel opens with Mulheisen's aged mother nearly slain by
an incomprehensible bombing at an orderly environmental protest.
Mulheisen resigns from the force to nurse her, but as she recovers
he turns his implacable attention to the bombers. The Task Force
can't decide if it's anti-environmentalists, international terrorists,
or a drug cartel's attempt to quiet a witness or spring him-but
Mulheisen quickly notices what the Feds haven't: a gun-happy
survivalist on the scene. Some dogs prefer to hunt on their
own, and in Badger Games readers saw that Joe Service would
run the most vicious beast to earth. Now Mulheisen reminds us
he's the old dog in this hunt. Will this fight
bring Service and Mulheisen together, at risk of losing the
prey?
No Man's Dog
(Detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mysteries (Hardcover))
by Jackson, Jon A.
Format: Hardcover (Cloth)
Price:
$24.00
Published: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004
Jon A. Jackson is a master mystery writer with "plenty
of action, lots of low key black humor, and a perfect ear for
the nuances of criminal speech" (Chicago Tribune). In No
Man's Dog his longtime hero "Fang" Mulheisen is back
for a volatile confrontation with his old nemesis, Joe Service.
Add to the mix drug dealers, international terrorists, federal
agents acting outside the law, and the hellish fury of crime-babe
Helen Sedlacek, and you have a Molotov cocktail. The novel opens
with Mulheisen's aged mother nearly slain by an incomprehensible
bombing at an orderly environmental protest. Mulheisen resigns
from the force to nurse her, but as she recovers he turns his
implacable attention to the bombers. The Task Force can't decide
if it's anti-environmentalists, international terrorists, or
a drug cartel's attempt to quiet a witness or spring him--but
Mulheisen quickly notices what the Feds haven't: a gun-happy
survivalist on the scene. Meanwhile Joe Service has been tossed
to the wolves by his ex-employers, an elite group of rogue federal
agents, just as an old mob contact warns him that someone he'd
hit is still alive and kicking. Some dogs prefer to hunt on
their own, and in Badger Games readers saw that Joe Service
would run the most vicious beast to earth. Now Mulheisen reminds
us he's the old dog in this hunt. Will this fight bring Service
and Mulheisen together, at risk of losing the prey?
Lansing State Journal
http://www.lsj.com/things/books/040711_walsh_7e.html
"No
Man's Dog" by Jon A. Jackson continues the chronicles of
Detroit Police Detective Sergeant "Fang' Mulheisen and
his old nemesis Joe Service, a fixer for the Mob who's now living
in Montana.
When
Mulheisen's aging mother is seriously injured in a bombing at
an environmental rally, he retires from the police department
to help take care of her; ironically, Mulheisen ends up joining
forces with Service in an attempt to track who was responsible.
A
better title for Jackson's fast-paced tale might have been "Homeland
Insecurities." There are many complications involving angry,
plotting survivalists, sneaky rogue federal agents and clever
drug smugglers.
While
Jackson is at his best when describing the northern Michigan
woods, unusual escapes and incompetent militiamen, his entertaining
novel is not completely enjoyable; one of the major villains
emerges mostly as a shadowy figure of death and destruction.
Ray
Walsh, owner of East Lansing's Curious Book Shop, has reviewed
crime novels and noir thrillers regularly since 1987.
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