Tyler Dilts

Mercy Dogs by Tyler Dilts

Choppy, fractured, broken, disconnected, fragmented…these were words I wrote down as I began reading Ben Shepard’s first person narrative of this story that gives insight into the lives of Ben, his father Peter and their tenant Grace. Ben’s story is revealed through thoughts, interactions, notebook entries and information he shares with Grace and others. This is a story of family, friendship, support, seeking, control, health issues, truth seeking, corrupt show more cops, murder and survival.

Here I have to say that having worked as an RN with patients in neurosurgical intensive care and later with people who survived with neurological damage and were trying to adjust while working to create a new way to live their lives, well, THIS book hit close to home. Ben’s experiences reminded me of people I knew well and the struggles some of them dealt with. I felt it was real and gritty and difficult as it also made me thankful to I have much easier issues to contend with in life.

Ben was a man that I admired more and more as I read. I realized that he might not be the man he once was but he was a good man more than willing to take on the challenge of caring for a father with dementia while also trying to find out what happened to his missing tenant. I was blown away and wrote W O W and thought it more than once as I continued reading.

This is a book that will linger with me. It reinforced that the moment we are in is the one that is truly important just as who we are right now has more weight than who we once were or who we may become.

I had to return to the beginning of the book to read the words that had such a huge impact…the ones that told the story of Mercy Dogs. Only near the end did I realize they were written by Ben’s father in a book he had researched and written after talking to WWI veterans.

There is no doubt much more I could say about this book but what I will say now is that I highly recommend it. This story hit home and it hit hard. Life is short – we should not waste it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars show less

Well written police procedural featuring widower detective Danny Beckett in Long Beach, CA.

Ditts does an excellent job in this first person narrative of conveying the problems cops face. Beckett keeps his emotions and grief in check, using alcohol as a crutch, as he works on a serial killer case with his partner Jen Tenaka. The partner is well drawn with an interesting complexity as a martial arts expert. The dynamics in the partnership is wonderful.

Read on Kindle and listened on Audible show more through Immersion Reading. show less

Author Tyler Dilts crafts a story of compassion and humanity around a retired cop, forced to retire with a traumatic brain injury after being shot in the head, and his aging father, who suffers from early stage dementia. Their daily struggles to get through the day, with meals, medicines, doctor's appointments are disrupted when their tenant and friend Grace disappears, and we slowly learn how she came to live with them and why. She fits in with them, and her sudden absence is palpable. We show more see retired cop Ben begin to heal by working on the missing persons case, despite his formidable mental obstacles. The story is well done, and even minor characters, like the dog-walking neighbor, are meaningful and developed. show less

This is a solidly engaging but unexceptional police procedural. The writing is fluid and easy to understand but doesn't have much style. Two Long Beach, California police detectives, the male still grieving for his dead wife, and the female who is also a martial arts instructor, investigate the brutal murder of a teacher in her classroom after school. The investigation is a bit plodding, however, and at one point even ignores an obvious suspect. You know twists are coming, and they do. The show more ending is satisfying, but it is the growing relationship between the two detectives that is really the heart of the book. The author is much better at characterization than plotting. So despite my lukewarm review, I actually just clicked and bought the next in the series from Amazon (but the Kindle version was only 99 cents, and I had a credit...) I should mention that this is also one of those books where the author can't restrain from commenting on a lot of other books, songs, Starbucks, etc. There is a right way to blend these references in that can add realism to a story, but it is a bit awkward here.

I listened to the audio book, which was very well read by Alex Hyde-White. show less