The Yard Dog: A Mystery

by Sheldon Russell

Overview

The Yard Dog takes place near the close of World War II, when a large number of Nazi POWs were incarcerated in camps scattered across the prairies of the United States.

At Waynoka Divisional Point, near POW Camp Alva, the disillusioned Hook Runyon is assigned by the railroad to run off hobos and arrest pickpockets. Left behind in the war because of the loss of his arm in a car accident, Hook lives in a caboose, collects rare books, and drinks busthead liquor. When a coal picker by the name of Spark Dugan is found run over by a reefer car, Hook and his sidekick, Runt, the local moonshiner, suspect foul play and are drawn into a scheme far greater than either could have imagined. This conspiracy reaches the highest echelons of the camp and beyond and will push Hook and Runt to their physical and mental limits.

Hook is a complex character, equal parts rough and vulnerable, an unlikely and unwilling hero. He is more than matched by Dr. Reina Kaplan, a Jewish big-city transplant to Camp Alva who is battling her own demons and has been put in charge of educating the Nazi inmates in the basics of democracy before their eventual return to Germany.

Vivid descriptions of period detail, stark landscapes, and unique characters make this first book in the Hook Runyon series a fascinating mystery full of tension and deep insight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429929165
Publisher:	St. Martin''s Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	A Hook Runyon Mystery , #1
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	304
File size:	331 KB

About the Author

Dr. Sheldon Russell has taught at the University of Louisville and is professor emeritus at University of Central Oklahoma. He is the author of four previously published novels. Empire, a suspense novel; two historic frontier novels, The Savage Trail and Requiem at Dawn, which was voted a Finalist in the 2001 Western Writers of America, Inc. Spur Awards competition; and Dreams to Dust: A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush, which won the 2006 Langum Prize for Excellence in American Historical Fiction and the 2007 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction and was selected as an Official Oklahoma Centennial Project. He lives in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

DR. SHELDON RUSSELL, Professor Emeritus, University of Louisville, and University of Central Oklahoma, is the author The Yard Dog, The Insane Train, and four previously published historical novels. He lives in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

Read an Excerpt

Men gathered around the reefer, their breaths rising in the morning chill. The switch engine puffed and sighed, and steam shot from her sides. Ten or so German POWs watched from atop the ice deck. Ross Ague pushed back his hat and wallowed a cigar stump into the corner of his mouth as Hook approached.

“It’s a goddamn mess, Runyon,” he said, “and there’s cars waiting to ice. That produce goes to mush, someone’s ass is going on the line, and it ain’t going to be mine.”

Leaning down, Hook looked under the car, his stomach lurching. An arm was severed and tossed against the rail, its fingers curled. Caught by the undercarriage, the torso had dragged backward down line, the skin and muscle scoured away by bedrock. There was no mistaking the frayed cuffs or the wear of Spark Dugan’s heels.

Editorial Reviews

Set in Oklahoma at the close of WWII, Russell's engrossing mystery casts light on a little-known corner of American history. When harmless indigent Spark Dugan winds up dead in the Waynoka rail yards, the local yard dog (i.e., railroad detective), Hook Runyon, decides the man's death was no accident. Runyon soon learns that mild-mannered Dugan may have been involved in a local ring smuggling army goods. As more details come to light, Runyon begins to suspect a big-time operation that involves foul play at a nearby Nazi POW camp-and possibly a local oil tycoon with a penchant for lavish living. With the help of the camp cook and community moonshiner as well as the POW camp's English teacher, Runyon and his friends are soon ensnared in a dangerous investigation that's anything but routine railroad detective work. Russell (Dreams to Dust) impressively contrasts the book's raw, colorful characters with the harsh Oklahoma landscape. (Sept.)

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Publishers Weekly

Murder near an Oklahoma POW camp. After Hook Runyon lost much of his right arm in a car accident, his wife Janet, who was driving, added insult to injury by leaving him. Though he's ridden the rails and engrossed himself in books in the years since, the sting of her abandonment and the memory of his missing limb remain vivid. He lives a solitary life, bunking in a caboose and working at the Waynoka train depot, his only friend the similarly outcast moonshiner Spark Dugan. When Spark is found dead on a block of ice beneath a reefer car, only Hook seems to see anything suspicious or to care. On the death certificate, he defiantly lists the cause as homicide and resolves to investigate. A few miles to the north is the POW installation Camp Alva, which holds a group of German prisoners. Hook figures to check it out as part of his probe, not knowing what the reader has already learned: Dr. Reina Kaplan has just been assigned to the camp to implement a propaganda program-forbidden by the Geneva Convention-involving German soldiers. Though Major Stan Foreman, the Camp Commander, stonewalls Hook on his first visit, he's undeterred. He uncovers more secrets, suffers a brutal assault and finds a surprising new love on his way to solving Spark's murder. As a mystery, Russell's (Dreams to Dust, 2006, etc.) moody story misses the forest for the historical trees, but readers engrossed in the mid-1940s world he evokes won't mind.

Kirkus Reviews

“Pungent as the coal smoke hanging over a railroad yard, Sheldon Russell's elegantly written The Yard Dog offers a fascinating glimpse of raw passions in an unusual World War II setting that is true to its time and place. As Oklahoma as Woody Guthrie, The Yard Dog is bound for glory.” —Carolyn Hart, author of Dare to Die and Ghost at Work

“Reading The Yard Dog, I could feel the hot coal cinders from passing locomotive engines burn the back of my neck. The setting is pitch perfect mid-century American noir, and I'm hooked on Hook Runyon!” —James R. Benn, author of Evil For Evil: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery

“The era of the Greatest Generation is brought vividly to life in Sheldon Russell's outstanding novel, The Yard Dog, a compelling story of crime, conspiracy, and disillusionment set in an American POW camp at the end of WWII. The plot is gripping, the writing is crisp, and the setting is both historically accurate and immensely evocative. This is a terrific novel.” —William Bernhardt, author of Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness

“Rarely does a book the quality of The Yard Dog come along. Sheldon Russell is the sniper and Yard Dog hits the bull's-eye. Well-written characters, a diabolical plot and Nazis in an Oklahoma prison camp: The Yard Dog has everything it takes to make this the best mystery of the year--or in years! It'll be a real crime if Yard Dog doesn't win an Edgar--it is that good.” —Robert E. Vardeman, author Death Channels

“...a marvelous read.” —Booklist (starred review)

“The plot is brilliant and riveting; the characterization is rich and vivid; the setting is distinctive and intriguing. I'm hoping this is the first in a long line of Hook Runyon mysteries.” —Fresh Fiction

“Russell has created one of the most noteworthy characters in modern detective fiction...The plot is well thought out, the characters memorable, the setting unusual...The Yard Dog is not only one of the best debuts of the year, it is among the best mysteries of the year.” —Mysterious Reviews

From the Publisher

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