Jack of Hearts - Robin F. Gainey

*Book source ~ Many thanks to Untreed Reads for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

Shimoni is the noble dog of an Italian Conte and Contessa. Given to the Contessa as a present in happier times, Shimoni is now witness to the Conte’s affair and the Contessa’s discovery of it. He does not want to end up like his friend Greta and her woman who were reduced to poverty when she and her man divorced. So Shimoni is doing his doggy best to keep his Conte and Contessa together.

 

This story is told entirely from Shimoni’s point of view and confirms what I’ve always said, that dogs are highly intelligent and if they could talk we humans would find that out. Ok, I know this is fantasy and we’ll never know what goes through a dog’s head, but this story is so believable that I’m looking at my own dogs (and cats, for that matter) in a whole new (and possibly suspicious) light. What are they plotting, eh?

 

In any case, the writing is superb, the plot keeps me turning the pages to see how it’s resolved, the characters are fully fleshed out and the ending… What, you thought I would give away the ending? The only problem I had with this story is it seemed to be overly long. But I loved Shimoni, his daily ruminations and machinations and everyone he came into contact with was fuel for his story. If you ever wanted to experience what it is like to be a dog, then this is about as close as you’ll get.