Black Dog [Hardcover]

Thomas Laird (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2004

Detective Jimmy Parisi is fighting against fatigue and homicide burnout. Someone is draining the blood out of young women and leaving them to die. There are signs that a crude needle is being used in the process, and it looks like the work of someone who knows the art of mortuary science.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chicago homicide detective Jimmy Parisi must contend with his own depression as well as a serial killer nicknamed the Count (so called for his habit of draining his female victims' blood) in British author Laird's third mystery thriller (after 2001's Cutter and 2003's Season of the Assassins). The "low-profile" murder of an elderly inner-city resident adds complications. Laird knows how to jack up the suspense, but seasoned crime fans may sense that the author is writing less from the heart or the gut than from a steady diet of other American noir mysteries. Parisi's family life has decided overtones of other cop series: his wife Natalie, aka Red, has to cope with the undoubtedly real but hardly original problems of a homicide detective's mid-life burnout. "Red had spied the black dog running loose in our household, and she refused to let that dark canine feast on my self-pity and depression," Jimmy says at one point, a comment that epitomizes the novel's melodramatic, even mocking tone. Laird's two previous Jimmy Parisi novels have earned him a certain level of critical and reader esteem, and his latest, despite its lack of originality, might well continue the trend.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Constable (January 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184119798X
• ISBN-13: 978-1841197982
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So many problems, so few pages, April 14, 2005

By 

Larry Scantlebury (Ypsilanti, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Dog (Thomas Laird's Jimmy Parisi) (Hardcover)

I picked this up because I was in one of those "in between" points in one's day. Interesting title; interesting cover. That was about as far as it went. I became so tired of Jimmy Parisi talking to himself, repeatedly, his black dog, his girlfriend's death years ago, his nearly racist tirades, his friend Doc, Red, his wife, his son's depresssion, his depression, I wanted to kill myself.

Too many problems. On top of all of this, a serial killer who drains blood (a little Starsky and Hutch, no?) and then additionally, tortured animals. It's almost as though, how can I say this? It's almost as though Mr. Laird has lined up any number of plots and checks them off as he covers them. Good father who wasn't there for his son; good father whose wife died suddenly and he struggled on courageously; good cop who loses his mentor to retirement and it's too much to tell him how much he misses him. But none of those issues grabbed me, because they were superficially raised and then put away. I would think if one or two or three of those issues were addressed and then really examined and resolved over 20 or 25 chapters, it would have been more satisfying.

Finally, there is any number of diatribes about Catholics. Being anti-catholic is one thing; it's America. Have you listened to Michael Moore lately? But to be malicious and spiteful in your attacks, not very sporting, eh mate? I gave it 3 stars because of the superlative physical descriptions of one of the greatest cities in America. But Jimmy Parisi ain't no Spenser. Not yet. But I will read Mr. Laird again. Larry Scantlebury

5.0 out of 5 stars BLACK DOG is disturbingly personal, January 28, 2010

By 

Lissa Rheors "Aubrie Gardiner" (Peoria, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Dog (Thomas Laird's Jimmy Parisi) (Hardcover)

Thomas Laird's writing is certainly an acquired taste, at best. The second I picked up this book, my first thought was "Why the hell am I reading this?" The answer was simple enough- Mr. Laird's ideas and insight into the character's minds are crazy, yet seductive and intriguing. The book has grip- that is, to say, it literally turns the reader into the character. I am me, yet I am also Jimmy Parisi. Sick and impossible, but true. I found myself throwing the book at the nearest wall, or trying to kill it in other useless ways, whenever Jimmy had a new problem and I could feel his adrenaline while he was on the trail. Every jump, every twist, every heartbeat- they were all my own. I sometimes found myself shivering from the cold Jimmy felt, or weeping with him for his wife and son. Laird isn't shy, I'll give him that. He doesn't ease the reader into anything, just pushes them right into the ice-cold water... then holds them under.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars black dog has bite, February 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Dog (Thomas Laird's Jimmy Parisi) (Hardcover)

BLACK DOG, the third in the Jimmy Parisi series, goes the deepest into the heart of the series' protagonist. Parisi is near burn-out, but catching The Count has become a personal obsession for the Chicago detective. There is another murder to be solved as well--that of an Inner City senior citizen. The oldster's killing is deemed 'low profile', but Jimmy doesn't think so, and nothing is as it seems. So he fights on to find The Count and the Inner City killer. Parisi is fighting for his own life as a cop. BLACK DOG is an intense crime novel, filled with characters who really are characters, and the book is also a super-charged thriller.