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Bloodhound In Blue: The True Tales Of Police Dog JJ And His Two-Legged Partner (2013)

by Adam David Russ(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0762785381 (ISBN13: 9780762785384)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Lyons Press

review 1: Another book about a police dog and his handler, but this book distinguishes itself from the beginning by focusing on the dog; the handler is important, but as the book traces the career of Officer JJ, a Bloodhound in the K-9 Unit of the Salt Lake City Police Department, his partner, Mike Serio, takes on the mantle of protector, advocate and sidekick to the canine manhunter. An early focus of the book is the prejudice JJ encountered as a non-biting dog in a world of aggressive canines. The police department brass, ever mindful of a limited budget, were reluctant to introduce a dog known for tracking, not attacking, and the other officers of the K-9 Unit, at least the two-legged ones, jealously guarded their own positions and status, putting their own interests above public... more safety, an all-too-common situation in politically oriented police administrations everywhere. JJ knocked down their arguments and sometimes even overcame their prejudices by succeeding, not just where others had failed but after they had given up. He tracked down and apprehended more miscreants than all the other K-9 dogs, and his success rate (in the high 90th percentile) in finding those couldn't be found (lost kids) and didn't want to be found (crooks and losers) was embarrassing to the department's human officers. JJ is shown in the book to not only be the first and best of the police department's Bloodhounds, but the dog who pioneered the way for all the others who followed. The story is uplifting and inspiring, and as you read along, you will come to value JJ's companionship, so much so, that you will feel true pain and distress when his health begins to fail after years of serving the public. I'm not giving anything away when I tell you the ending is both tearful and inspirational, for it's only in books like "Grayfriar's Bobby" and "Lassie" that the dog outlives the master and weeps by the human's grave. In the gray vale in which we exist, it is the human who too often weeps as he receives a small cedar box and a paw-print preserved in plaster. This book is an excellent read for those interested in policing and public safety, as well as those who value the companionship and service of our four-legged friends and yearn for a reunion at the Rainbow Bridge.
review 2: Quite a good read.I won this book in a goodreads first reads giveaway. I love animal true stories and, on receiving this book really quickly, I couldn't wait to read it. The edition I received was the hardback variety and it has a very inviting cover showing a lovely colour photo of JJ, the beautiful bloodhound who is the book's main concern. There are lots of photos included in the book and I found it helpful that they are throughout the book as the action is occurring rather than a clump of pictures just in the middle of the book as so often happens or at the end of the book as is the norm for most kindle editions-it's handy to see pictures as each thing occurs in the book than having to flick to a certain area. Having said that, I didn't feel that the photos were displayed to the best of their ability; this is because they were just on normal, thin book pages, not glossy paper, but they were better than newspaper photos. I don't know the cost restrictions/ processes involved in producing a book so this might have had something to do with it but maybe it would have been better to have had better quality photos but compromised on just a paperback edition? So, I was reading another book at the time but had a scan through this one and was raring to go with it but it quickly disappeared and my partner ended up reading it first while I finished my current book. He read it in one day and thought it was well written, couldn't put it down and a really good read. He said he would give it five stars rating. I was expecting great things. I thought it was quite good but I just couldn't connect with it. I found it rather repetitive-it seemed most days Serio would get a call, JJ would go sniff the one to be found out and then bay and then the same would happen again. I would have liked to have known more home detail, aside from Mike and JJ's police work so I could get more of a feel of the character that was JJ, his little quirks etc. I suppose this might be because it wasn't the dog's owner who wrote this book, it was one of his friends. I believe Adam Russ has long been a friend of Serio but, all the time I was reading the book, I felt a distance there, a barrier, I just didn't feel like I could totally lose myself in the pages. It's a pity and, don't get me wrong, there are some good moments in this book. The final chapters were dealt with more sensitively, and I did feel the emotion better here. I do like to read a lot of true crime and books about forensics and how they catch criminals so this did provide a new slant on this-ie. a dog being able to sniff a criminal out so I would probably read more on this subject. What a wonderful dog JJ was, this book is well worth a read to find out about him. less

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