Wow! I have just finished this book and I am blown away by it. The front cover has a quote from Sunday Age 'As good as Patricia Cornwell'. Well, from my perspective, Gabrielle Lord is 10 times better than Patricia Cornwell. I can't understand why her books are not more widely known if this is an example of her craft.

Harry Doyle is a cop who used to be in Homicide but now works with police dogs tracking criminals and finding drugs. His personal life is in shambles with his wife having an affair, his older daughter staying out and carrying on with a married man and his younger daughter arranging to meet someone she has been chatting with on the internet. He continues to work but one dog is killed as he helps stake out a house where there has been a report of screams and shots. The woman in the house was murdered but the perp has disappeared. Then Harry is called into the country to help investigate a murder. And from evidence collected it is concluded that the same person was responsible for both murders. Harry decides to get back into the homicide business and investigate so he is away from home when his younger daughter goes missing.

We slowly learn more about Harry and his wife throughout the book. Harry is a very complex character who has kept a lot of things hidden from his wife. In turn, she has encouraged the secretiveness by being overly critical and demanding. So, as they work through the crises that face them, they are also realizing their parts in the disintegration of the marriage.

I was on tenterhooks for most of this book and the suspense continues right up to the end.

The descriptions of the Australian land and its fauna and flora were an additional delight. ( )

Harry Doyle hoped that his decision to join the police Dog Squad would improve the quality of his family life, but it hasn't. His wife is having an affair - he can smell it on her - and his elder daughter is troubled. Only his dogs and eight-year-old Hannah offer any affection - and even Hannah is spending more and more time with her bedroom door shut, playing with her computer.
Harry's family disintegrates even further when he is called out to investigate two apparently entirely different murders. His experience and his extraordinary rapport with his dogs combine to offer him clues unobserved by the average detective. He knows the two killings are connected. - jacket notes from the Coronet edition 1998.
An intense, dark atmosphere, interesting police-dog angle. I haven't read any others by Lord, but this was pretty good, so I'm looking for more. ( )