Toronto Detective William Murdoch has a lot on his mind; his sister, Sister Philomena, is dying. His father, from whom he has long been estranged, has been convicted of murdering a man over gambling debts in a dog fight ... and then there is the lovely widow Enid Jones, for whom he has been pining during the previous two books I read in the series.When Murdoch's father asks him to re-investigate the murder of which he has been convicted, loudly proclaiming his innocence, Murdoch is skeptical. He has far too many memories of abuse suffered at his father's hands to believe him entirely. Nevertheless, he agrees to look into the matter.This book takes Murdoch into the murky world of dog-fighting, as well as giving us a deeper look into his childhood and time as a lumberjack before coming to Toronto to work in the police department.As with the previous two books I read, Maureen Jennings brings us characters and places that are interesting and entertaining. I highly recommend these books to fans who, like myself, had previously only known Murdoch through "The Artful Detective"/"Murdoch Mysteries" television series and want to see the material that gave rise to the program.
I love the Murdoch Mysteries! In this book, Murdoch is trying to find our if his estranged father actually did commit a murder after loosing a match with his ratting dog. Murdoch's father, Harry, is put in prison and awaiting execution when Murdoch finds out about it. Harry swears he is innocent. Murdoch only wants the truth. Once Murdoch starts his investigation under the ruse of being a reporter, he learns that something just does not add up with all of the connected families within the community where the murder took place. There are so many people that are suspects, it is hard to figure out who commits the murder until the very end. The dogs make a brief appearance every now and then, which makes the reader see that Harry really does seem to have a soul since he does care about his ratter named Havoc. It took me until the very end to finally figure out which suspect was in fact the real murder.
What do You think about Let Loose The Dogs (2004)?
Detective Murdoch! I'm sure I had a shocked look on my face for a fair amount of the passages involving Enid Jones. While her actions seemed a bit out of character, I'm glad Murdoch is finding a measure of happiness after his family events. I felt that there was just too much going on in this book: either deal with Susanna or deal with Harry. With both stories AND the mystery AND the new developments in the Murdoch/Jones romance, it was hard to keep track of everything that was going on, especially all the characters related to the mystery. Julia Watch: 0 sightings in this book.
—Gwen
As one of the more complex MM books in the series, Jennings did an amazing job of keeping me hooked on the plot. I did find it a bit slow going at first but once I got into it and truly felt invested in the story everything picked up. The description and detail that went into it was sometimes horrifying and what I would usually expect from a Gerritsen novel. So much so with this one there were moments when I had to stop reading for a few moments and just take in what had happened. A few of those were with the main character himself. I know that the show goes off in a different direction in terms of personality and characterisation for Murdoch, Brackenreid, Dr Ogden and Crabtree but it was with this particular book where I certainly came across stark differences in Murdoch's character, and I was rather taken aback. Nonetheless it is another amazing book and definitely a series which continues to whet my appetite for detective novels.
—Emma
Back to three stars, this book was very complicated and I was about 100 pages in before I had a clue what was going on, so many characters. There was a return to a couple of characters from earlier books which was nice. Overall though I found it pretty confusing for about two thirds of the book, which is just annoying. Also, I'm finding the pursuit of Mrs Jones a little tedious, neither her or her son come off as very nice people. Not to worry, I will have a break from the series for a while and come to it later.
—Amanda Meggs
