by Sandra Murphy
& Spencer Quinn

This week we have a review of The Right Side, something very different from mystery author Spencer Quinn aka Peter Abrahams, who is known for his Chet and Bernie mysteries. We also have an interesting guest post by Spencer where he explains how he came to write this book.
Spencer will be signing copies of The Right Side at Mysterious Galaxy, 5943 Balboa Ave Suite 100 in San Diego, CA on June 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of The Right Side. If you are unable to attend the booksigning, we also have a link to order it from Amazon, and from Mysterious Galaxy where a portion goes to help support KRL.

The Right Side: By Spencer Quinn
Review by Sandra Murphy

LeAnne Hogan was someone to watch in the military. Sent to Afghanistan, she worked with the local people through an interpreter. Local women felt more comfortable around her than male soldiers until she shot and killed a suicide bomber at the opening of a center for women.

Another bomb kills and injures most of her outfit. LeAnne lost her left eye and has a lot of scarring. Her memory is impaired, too, leaving her deeply flawed in the eyes of many, including herself sometimes. She has one friend in her roommate at Walter Reed. Marci lost a leg. When Marci dies of a blood clot, LeAnne decides she’s had enough of the hospital and leaves without telling anyone.

At first, she just wants to get on a bus and ride, no destination. Soon, a car seems a better idea, no other people around. Without a plan in mind, she heads west to see Marci’s daughter. As if she hasn’t been through enough, she finds that Marci’s daughter is missing. As a person who’s lost a lot of memory, LeAnne needs help if she’s going to find the girl, and she gets it in the form of a stray dog. She’s positive she can’t keep the dog and will give it to a shelter, but somehow the dog manages to stay with her, help out, and even cause her to reimagine her life. She names the dog Goody.

LeAnne is basically screwed up, lost within herself and society. The loyalty of a dog no one wanted serves them both well. Two mysteries are hers to solve—how was her unit betrayed and who has Marci’s child?

The book starts with LeAnne in the hospital, trying to come to terms with her injuries. There are insights into her childhood that are a stark contrast to what she had and what she lost. When she arrives in Marci’s home town, the suspense is enough to grab you by the throat and not let go until you know where the child is. The dog, of course, takes charge of LeAnne when she’s not sure what to do or where to go next.

In the end, readers are going to wish this wasn’t a standalone book. LeAnne and Goody are a pair you’ll want to revisit now and again, just to catch up and see how they’re doing. Wherever they are, whatever they’re doing, it’s going to be good.

For readers who enjoy the Chet and Bernie series of books Quinn writes, this is totally different. It’s suspenseful, a thriller, a mystery, a tale of a woman and a dog who saves her when she thought she’d saved the dog. It’s a story of healing. It’s a story you won’t want to put down.

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch, in the land of blues, booze and shoes—St Louis, Missouri. She writes articles for Animal Wellness and Natural Awakenings magazines and online, for Sniff and Barkens. For the last ten years, she’s written/edited the SPAWNews, a monthly newsletter for small publishers, artists, writers network. She has written short stories for three anthologies (Flash and Bang, The Killer Wore Cranberry #4 and Dogs and Dragons). There’s even a tale of the pitfalls of gardening when you’re six years old, titled Death of a Red Leather Mary Jane.
At last, she’s achieved her dream of a book of her own on Kindle–and all the other e-readers–with the publication of From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception, a collection of short stories published by Untreed Reads. Her Westie-ish dog, Ozzie, begs you to buy a copy. It’s only 99c and he needs more toys.

How I Came To Write The Right Side
by Spencer Quinn

Here’s something that readers of The Right Side will notice after just a page or two: it’s not a Chet and Bernie novel. In fact, it’s very different—tonally, thematically. You name it! You may even ask: Did the same guy write it? Answer: Yes, I swear! And my bet is a careful reader will actually find, if not exact similarities, then indications that these different stories come from the same consciousness. Here’s a good place to say there is a dog in The Right Side, a dog who plays an important role, although this dog is not Chet. But I think you’ll end up liking her (Spoiler alert!) a lot.

Spencer Quinn

Sometimes—and they’re often the best times in what my grandmother always called “the writing game”— a character grabs you and won’t let go. This character, a figment of your own imagination but not wholly under your power, demands to be brought to life, and in the case of LeAnne Hogan, the main character in The Right Side, will bring herself to life with or without your help. So—I helped!

But why her? And why now? I think the answer is that every writer is affected by the big events going on in the world, and that sometimes those big events just need to be written about; which I did, but in my own way. And in the course of writing, I confess I was deeply moved by LeAnne, this semiautonomous figment becoming so real to me. At the same time, she was capable of doing shocking things, and I wasn’t totally sure what I thought of her until the very last lines. But when they came spooling out, I suddenly knew exactly what I thought, and reading over the whole draft for the first time, I saw that the ending was inevitable from the start.

To enter to win a copy of The Right Side, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “right,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen June 24, 2017. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

The Right Side

You can also use this link to purchase the book on Amazon. If you have ad blocker on you may not see the link:

Peter Abrahams is the Edgar award winning author of thirty-six novels. Among his acclaimed crime thrillers are Oblivion and The Fan (filmed starring Robert De Niro). Under the name Spencer Quinn, he writes the New York Times bestselling Chet and Bernie mysteries and the middle-grade Bowser and Birdie series. The Right Side–the story of a wounded female vet–comes out June 27, 2017.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases using those links. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.