Review: A Man and His Dog
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2014
James Rollins, author of a number of best selling action novels, introduces readers to a new pair of heroes, Tucker and Kane, in his fast paced, entertaining story "Tracker." Tucker and Kane are a lot like any pair of action buddies-- best friends who know each other's strengths and weaknesses and form a well oiled, highly trained team. There's one big difference, however between these two and every other pair you've read about: only one of them is human; the other is a very special dog."Tracker" doesn't waste much time on character development or backstory, instead starting out with Tucker and Kane in the middle of a fast moving criminal plot. We do learn that Tucker was a former Army ranger in Afghanistan, who, along with Kane, served as trackers, either trying to rescue people or find unsavory characters. After Tucker gets out of the military, Kane is released with him and the two find themselves in Budapest, the how and why of which are never explained. While sitting at an outdoor café, Tucker notices an attractive woman being followed by three unsavory characters and decides to help.Tucker's instincts prove correct and he has to rescue the woman, Aliza, from her pursuers. He soon discovers that Aliza holds the key to a fortune in treasure looted by the Nazis and hidden somewhere in the city during World War II. The pursuers and their boss want the treasure, and Tucker and Kane find themselves having to save Aliza and find the treasure as well.Author Rollins has done his homework on the training and equipping of trackers like Tucker and Kane, and the story contains a good bit of fascinating detail without getting bogged down in rambling wonkish technicalities. It's a story written by a military enthusiast but one told with general audiences in mind. He also manages to create a quite credible and interesting back story involving how the treasure came to be hidden somewhere in Budapest and why Aliza is so important."Tracker" is a very meat-and-potatoes type of story, lean and well written, but without a lot of character development or romantic interplay between Tucker and Aliza that one might expect in this type of story. However, although "Tracker" lacks the usual components that make a story interesting rather than mechanical for readers, it has a very unsual hook that gets readers' interest... namely, the canine half of the team, Kane. Rollins details Kane's training and the special equipment Tucker uses to keep in touch with Kane at a distance. Parts of the book are told from Kane's point of view, so readers see how Kane overcomes danger and literally comes to Tucker's rescue in the nick of time. Readers may not find Tucker all that unique or compelling a hero, but Kane is definitely memorable.Although Rollins bills this book as a short story, it's actually a novelette of roughly 40 pages (over half the book consists of excerpts from some of Rollins' other novels). That extra length allows Rollins to let the action and suspense develop naturally and explain what's going on so the readers can easily follow what's happening. He's also given readers quite an original hero in Kane. A story about Tucker would have been fairly routine and indistinguishable from lots of other action tales. However, a story about Tucker and Kane is one of a kind.