Black Dog

By Thomas Laird

Black Dog lives in the deep pit of the human soul, where desolation and depression also hang out. In this third Jimmy Parisi novel the Chicago detective is fighting against fatigue and homicide burnout. His latest case involves a killer--Black Dog--who is draining the blood from young women before leaving them to die. There are signs that a crude needle is being used in the process, and it looks like the work of someone who knows the art of mortuary science. Jimmy and his partner suspect that the blood is connected to satanic ritual and that vampire cults that celebrate the black arts are alive and well in sophisticated twenty-first-century Chicago. At the same time the homicide investigator is called to work on the murder of an inner-city senior citizen. The killing is listed as "low profile," but that is soon to change. And then Black Dog gets personal with Jimmy --something very bad happens in his home life and the Chicago cop feels like a candle lit at both ends. Two killers to catch and a family tragedy to get through. It's one hell of a ride, and in the end will Jimmy still be standing?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 078671350X
• ISBN13: 9780786713509
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

BLACK DOG is disturbingly personal

Thomas Laird's writing is certainly an acquired taste, at best. The second I picked up this book, my first thought was "Why the hell am I reading this?" The answer was simple enough- Mr. Laird's ideas and insight into the character's minds are crazy, yet seductive and intriguing. The book has grip- that is, to say, it literally turns the reader into the character. I am me, yet I am also Jimmy Parisi. Sick and impossible, but true. I found myself throwing the book at the nearest wall, or trying to kill it in other useless ways, whenever Jimmy had a new problem and I could feel his adrenaline while he was on the trail. Every jump, every twist, every heartbeat- they were all my own. I sometimes found myself shivering from the cold Jimmy felt, or weeping with him for his wife and son. Laird isn't shy, I'll give him that. He doesn't ease the reader into anything, just pushes them right into the ice-cold water... then holds them under.

BLACK DOG goes for the throat

BLACK DOG gives the reader a look at the new Ross Macdonald of crime fiction, and a look at the new Lew Archer--Jimmy Parisi. The WASHINGTON POST (4/25/04) says"Laird is a skillful practitioner of the classic police procedural...The language and especially Parisi's voice are perfectly pitched to evoke working-class Chicago in all its ethnic intensity. This is a winning book about a winning character who earns our admiration for his gimpy middleaged weariness and perseverance." BLACK DOG is a superior crime novel from the author of SEASON OF THE ASSASSIN and CUTTER.

black dog has bite

BLACK DOG, the third in the Jimmy Parisi series, goes the deepest into the heart of the series' protagonist. Parisi is near burn-out, but catching The Count has become a personal obsession for the Chicago detective. There is another murder to be solved as well--that of an Inner City senior citizen. The oldster's killing is deemed 'low profile', but Jimmy doesn't think so, and nothing is as it seems. So he fights on to find The Count and the Inner City killer. Parisi is fighting for his own life as a cop. BLACK DOG is an intense crime novel, filled with characters who really are characters, and the book is also a super-charged thriller.