Flashback

Reid Bennett settles back into his comfortable position as police chief for a small Canadian town while awaiting the birth of his first child, but a menacing youth gang invades Murphy's Harbor and is soon suspected of murder

The one-man police department of Murphy's Harbour, Ont., confronts a rising wave of crime and his own imminent fatherhood in the sixth Reid Bennett mystery (after On the Inside ). Wood, a former Toronto policeman with a finely tuned sense of procedure, weaves a variety of plot elements--a gang of teenagers savaging local businesses, a stolen car found submerged in the lake, a series of homicides, a drug-running outfit and a vengeful escaped felon--into a single intricate tale. Assisting Reid is his German shepherd, Sam, a multitalented utility infielder who can "keep," "track," "seek," "fight," "guard," sniff out cocaine and corpses, save lives and generally pinch-hit for a dozen patrolmen. Despite abundant, deftly detailed action, the narrative begins to pall under a surfeit of murders. Yet the wrap-up leaves everything tidily in place, even the new baby.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Between visits to the hospital where his wife is in the process of delivering their first child, Murphy's Harbor police chief Reid Bennett (Dead in the Water, etc.) and his super-sleuth dog Sam must grapple with continued gang vandalism; the disappearance of Moira Waites and her alleged lover Stu Jeffries; and the murder of Stu's wife, Carolyn, found dead in the trunk of Moira's husband's car, and identified by him. Who drove Waites's car into the lake? To get at the answer, Reid lets an Indian sidekick roust a yuppie-turned-thug; uncovers a wife-killing scenario that ties lawyer Waites to an escaped con who hates Reid; breaks up a kidnap attempt; finds more bodies; and puts another name to that body in the trunk. At the root of it all: drugs and revenge, leading to new father Reid's reevaluation of which is most important to him, his family or his job. Despite a few too obvious red herrings and a hero who's queasier at the thought of putting his childbirth training in action than in facing both barrels of a shotgun: a fairly sturdy, small-town tale, with quiet appeal. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.