Good Boy

Description

There’s no weapon to trace, no print to lift, no stranger on the security camera. There’s only a dog that loved its handler enough to do anything he asked.

Out in the long grass of Hartley County, the deaths look like animal attacks because, technically, they are. A retired working-dog trainer has spent his quiet retirement teaching obedience that doesn’t end where obedience should — turning loyalty itself into something that can be aimed and fired.

Animal-control officer Priya Mendez notices the pattern first: the same gentle, well-fed dogs near too many scenes, sitting calm as church. When she asks the wrong neighbor the right question, she gets invited in for iced tea by a soft-spoken man whose dog watches her hands the entire time.

Tense and unbearably quiet, this is suspense about weaponized devotion and the betrayal of the most trusting thing in the world. Walton lets the menace pant in the dark just out of frame. You’ll never hear a whistle the same way again.

Hold still. He hasn’t given the command yet.