Spencer Quinn is the beloved author of the
Chet and Bernie mystery series, starring a brilliant, if at times distracted,
white-eared dog, who relays the confusing and annoying antics of the humans
around him with openness and unintentional humor. Quinn’s gift for mind-melding
with a dog in a way that is both believable and entertaining is not restricted
just to animals, but to people as well, as this new novel proves.
The long, apparently never-ending struggle our troops are
fighting in Afghanistan has created many heroes, and many broken minds and
bodies. The Right Side presents us
with a hero, in every sense of the word, and her struggle to fight the
derailing of her mind after being nearly blown up during an operation in
Afghanistan.
LeAnne Hogan awakes in Walter Reed Hospital with a blinding
pain in her head and a blackness on her right side. Her right eye is gone, and
there is shrapnel in her brain, but that last bit of info continually eludes
her. The loss of her eye, however, is ever present and unforgettable. She had
been an accomplished athlete (pole vaulting), before joining the military, where her strength, intelligence, and courage were leading her on a trajectory of success. Her personal life was blossoming with her new love. Life was complicated and intense, but LeAnne thrived. But now she looked upon
her ruined face and diminishing strength with bitterness and despair. Here
Quinn’s ability to become his protagonist, whether a dog or a woman, is startling
and brilliant, but only as an afterthought. Reading, we become entangled in LeAnne’s
shattered thoughts and are passengers on her journey, embedded like a civilians
in a war zone.
LeAnne’s roommate at Walter Reed is a recalcitrant amputee named
Marci. Their friendship is hardly warm and fuzzy, but becomes fiercely intense.
With their battle-scarred minds, they manage to make each other laugh, and
tiptoe into the depths of despair the injuries and traumas have sent them.
Marci tells LeAnne of her first marriage to a kind-hearted man she should have
stayed with, and her second to an abusive mistake, with whom she had a
daughter. The eight-year-old Mia was living in Washington state with Marci’s
mom. What will become of her daughter if something happens to her? she asks LeAnne. Something already has, LeAnne answers. They both laugh.
LeAnne clings to Marci, needing her friendship
like a salve for her ravaged face. So when Marci unexpectedly dies, LeAnne’s weak
grip on sanity loosens even more. She sneaks out of the hospital and begins a cross-country
trip to Washington in search of Marci’s past life and her child, or maybe in
search of her own past. Her memory is short-circuited, and her days drift by in
mostly drunken oblivion.
It’s not until about three-quarters into the novel that the
dog appears. She’s a stray, large and dark-eyed, mysterious and not particularly
friendly, but she attaches herself to LeAnne and will not let go. LeAnne tries
to find a home for her, but the dog,
whom she eventually names Goody, will not release her hold. Strangely, Goody seems to know to walk on LeAnne’s right side to help guide and protect her. When
LeAnne finds out that Marci’s daughter has gone missing, Goody becomes all the
more important in the search for the little girl.
LeAnne finds herself on a
mission. She becomes obsessed with finding the little girl and with belatedly rectifying Marci's messy life, and perhaps figuring out her own future.
Our concepts of right and wrong blend at times, with ethical and moral choices becoming less clear, especially in war: thus the ambiguous title of this fine novel. But as LeAnne finds her path, Goody knows which side to walk on.
