So He Takes the Dog

A Beautiful Tease

As I began reading this book, I formed certain assumptions about what it would be; crime fiction. At some point, the perpetrator of the central 'event' would be found, and questions would be answered. We follow the narrator and his partner through endless speculation, interpretation, determination, conversation - to be told that our assumptions are wrong, that crimes are stories regardless of whether they have an ending, stories about the people who touch the victim in even only the most subtle of ways, stories told differently by different people, with bias and without, with compassion and without, with conclusion and without.

I've read other books without concrete endings in the past with satisfaction, surprise and show more reflection - unfortunately, this one succeeded in frustrating me, which coloured the hindsight of my enjoyment. The evident revelry in words, the depth and breadth of character, the utterly absorbing atmosphere of seaside township carried me and my assumption along, and then dropped me off with an embarrassed shrug.

Litritchur, not crime fiction... dammit, Mr. Buckley, you are such a tease.. show less

This novel starts out as a simple crime novel when the body of a local homeless man is found on the beach in winter by a man and his dog (of the title) but it quickly becomes obvious that this is as much about the police officer working on the investigation and his life, than that of Henry. The style is meandering and the author takes delight in the words he uses, pausing to describe something in great detail. The pace of the police investigation is good and one of the strengths of the novel for me, it felt real as small bits of information are gained and investigated and something else of the story of Henry emerges. Less interesting and engaging was the story of the police officer's private life and I found much of this tedious.

The body of a homeless man is found on the beach in winter by a dog. The man was Henry, who was a known figure locally although nobody really knew that much about him. The book is about the police, in particularly a detective called John, trying to piece together bits of Henry's life in order to discover who killed him. But, this is not a conventional crime novel as the author is not interested in neatly resolved narratives, so what we are presented with instead is glimpses into the lives of Henry, the police and everyone who crosses their path - everyone who even enters the story briefly is a fully formed, real character with a back story.

The recommendation on the front cover is from Jon McGregor whose first two books I've enjoyed and show more Jonathan Buckley's style of writing here is very similar to McGregor's. Everything is very subtle - the title being the perfect example of this - the one line about a man's decision to take his dog with him a walk, is the catalyst for what follows, but it is so subtle. The author (in the interview at the back of the book) says that nothing in the book shouts. I really liked this style of writing, but like with Jon MacGregor's books, I think it is something that can divide opinion hugely. show less

This is the story of the Police investigating the death of a tramp on the beach. The murder of the tramp called Henry is really just a small part of the story, the main characters are the Police and how they get on with their investigations and their private lifes. There are alot of recurring side stories. The Police are having problems tracking down Henrys relatives they have lots of wrong leads.

It turns out Henry was called Ivor Clifford who had knocked down and killed a little girl in the 1960s.

The Police never find out who murdered him.

Good book but it was sometimes hard to follow what was going on as it wasnt always clear who was narrating the story.