The Yard Dog: A Mystery by Sheldon Russell

From the Publisher

The Yard Dog takes place near the close of World War II, when a large number of Nazi POWs were incarcerated in camps scattered across the prairies of the United States.

At Waynoka Divisional Point, near POW Camp Alva, the disillusioned Hook Runyon is assigned by the railroad to run off hobos and arrest pickpockets. Left behind in the war because of the loss of his arm in a car accident, Hook lives in a caboose, collects rare books, and drinks busthead liquor. When a coal picker by the name of Spark Dugan is found run over by a reefer car, Hook and his sidekick, Runt, the local moonshiner, suspect foul play and are drawn into a scheme far greater than either could have imagined. This conspiracy reaches the highest echelons of the camp and beyond and will push Hook and Runt to their physical and mental limits.

Hook is a complex character, equal parts rough and vulnerable, an unlikely and unwilling hero. He is more than matched by Dr. Reina Kaplan, a Jewish big-city transplant to Camp Alva who is battling her own demons and has been put in charge of educating the Nazi inmates in the basics of democracy before their eventual return to Germany.

Vivid descriptions of period detail, stark landscapes, and unique characters make this first book in the Hook Runyon series a fascinating mystery full of tension and deep insight.

Publishers Weekly

Set in Oklahoma at the close of WWII, Russell's engrossing mystery casts light on a little-known corner of American history. When harmless indigent Spark Dugan winds up dead in the Waynoka rail yards, the local yard dog (i.e., railroad detective), Hook Runyon, decides the man's death was no accident. Runyon soon learns that mild-mannered Dugan may have been involved in a local ring smuggling army goods. As more details come to light, Runyon begins to suspect a big-time operation that involves foul play at a nearby Nazi POW camp-and possibly a local oil tycoon with a penchant for lavish living. With the help of the camp cook and community moonshiner as well as the POW camp's English teacher, Runyon and his friends are soon ensnared in a dangerous investigation that's anything but routine railroad detective work. Russell (Dreams to Dust) impressively contrasts the book's raw, colorful characters with the harsh Oklahoma landscape. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews

Murder near an Oklahoma POW camp. After Hook Runyon lost much of his right arm in a car accident, his wife Janet, who was driving, added insult to injury by leaving him. Though he's ridden the rails and engrossed himself in books in the years since, the sting of her abandonment and the memory of his missing limb remain vivid. He lives a solitary life, bunking in a caboose and working at the Waynoka train depot, his only friend the similarly outcast moonshiner Spark Dugan. When Spark is found dead on a block of ice beneath a reefer car, only Hook seems to see anything suspicious or to care. On the death certificate, he defiantly lists the cause as homicide and resolves to investigate. A few miles to the north is the POW installation Camp Alva, which holds a group of German prisoners. Hook figures to check it out as part of his probe, not knowing what the reader has already learned: Dr. Reina Kaplan has just been assigned to the camp to implement a propaganda program-forbidden by the Geneva Convention-involving German soldiers. Though Major Stan Foreman, the Camp Commander, stonewalls Hook on his first visit, he's undeterred. He uncovers more secrets, suffers a brutal assault and finds a surprising new love on his way to solving Spark's murder. As a mystery, Russell's (Dreams to Dust, 2006, etc.) moody story misses the forest for the historical trees, but readers engrossed in the mid-1940s world he evokes won't mind.

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Men gathered around the reefer, their breaths rising in the morning chill. The switch engine puffed and sighed, and steam shot from her sides. Ten or so German POWs watched from atop the ice deck. Ross Ague pushed back his hat and wallowed a cigar stump into the corner of his mouth as Hook approached.

“It’s a goddamn mess, Runyon,” he said, “and there’s cars waiting to ice. That produce goes to mush, someone’s ass is going on the line, and it ain’t going to be mine.”

Leaning down, Hook looked under the car, his stomach lurching. An arm was severed and tossed against the rail, its fingers curled. Caught by the undercarriage, the torso had dragged backward down line, the skin and muscle scoured away by bedrock. There was no mistaking the frayed cuffs or the wear of Spark Dugan’s heels.

Read a Sample Chapter

The Yard Dog

Minotaur Books

Men gathered around the reefer, their breaths rising in the morning chill.  The switch engine puffed and sighed, and steam shot from her sides.  Ten or so German POWs watched from atop the ice deck. Ross Ague pushed back his hat and wallowed a cigar stump into the corner of his mouth as Hook approached.

“It’s a goddamn mess, Runyon,” he said, “and there’s cars waiting to ice.  That produce goes to mush, someone’s ass is going on the line, and it ain’t going to be mine.”

Leaning down, Hook looked under the car, his stomach lurching.  An arm was severed and tossed against the rail, its fingers curled.  Caught by the undercarriage, the torso had dragged backward down line, the skin and muscle scoured away by bedrock.  There was no mistaking the frayed cuffs or the wear of Spark Dugan’s heels.

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