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Reviewed by Christopher Solaas for Readers' Favorite
The Little Dog: The Red Grouse Tales by Leslie Garland relates a retired forester’s struggles with questions of good and evil, retribution, and judgment. Jenny is the landlady of the old coaching inn known as The Red Grouse. Bill is an old lumberjack and one of the patrons who shares tales with other regulars over a pint. One night Bill relates the tale from bygone days of when he shared a job with Stan Blackman, a bully of a man nobody liked. For one week he had to work side by side with the greasy, evil adulterer, and each day during their logging they were met at the remote site by a little white dog that seemed lost, a dog Stan eventually gets rid of. During the same week, a local teacher and her two children go missing, and evidence indicates Stan might have been behind it.
The Little Dog by Leslie Garland is not only a well-written vignette on a week in the life of a forester and the trials of working with an unpleasant coworker, but it is also a deep-dive analysis of good and evil, of original sin, of mercy and grace. The author did a good job of drawing me into the action while sharing thought-provoking concepts about the nature of sin and evil. As the action progresses, Bill has a conversation with the local pastor about when to consider a lost soul beyond any hope of redemption. To Bill, the accident on the ferry is a reflection of God’s judgment on someone past the point of no return. The drama was engaging and intriguing, but the deeper conversations were even more impactful. It would fit well as an addition to the library of a theologian, or a church small group.
