3.5 stars

Here's the thing: lots of bloggers have praised this book for capturing the working of a mind suffering from PTSD. But readers of Quinn's <i>Chet and Bernie</i> series will likely recognize thought patterns very similar to Chet's. It was very distracting for me, often picturing the dog in my head, and then realizing it was a woman.

Military service—the people who are attracted to it, the people who are forever changed by it—is the spine that connects our country from the Revolutionary War to today, and these stories are specific and meaningful. Click on the link below to read the rest of my review.

This book was very good! Definitely recommend this to anyone who loves strong female heroines!

LeAnne's life revolved around the Military. As the end of HighSchool approached she was headed for West Point. Her father's death changed that and instead of going the Officer route she joined up as just an ordinary soldier. But cream rises to the top and she was hailed as a rising star- until a mission in Afghanistan goes horribly wrong.

When she finds herself in hospital, minus an eye; horribly scarred both mentally and physically the thing that keeps her going is her feisty room-mate Marcie. Following Marcie's sudden & unexpected death, LeAnne leaves hospital and goes on the road- not sure where she is going or why.

She eventually finds herself in Marcie's home State with a large stray dog as a companion and finds purpose in trying to discover the whereabouts of Marcie's daughter, who disappeared after her mother's funeral.

LeAnne is not the easiest of heroines to like! Abrasive, often rude and locked in a world of pain she attempts to lock everyone out. The dog is not exactly an adorable puppy! Odd looking with some dubious habits, she sticks to LeAnne's blind/right side like glue. They do make an amazing team.

At times I struggled with this book. Le Anne's pain seemed almost too much to cope with. However it was worth persevering. It was worthwhile read and this odd couple will stay with me for a while. Thanks to Netgalley & the publishers for giving me the chance to read & review this book.

Fantastic book! I enjoyed it so much! Will definitely recomend it!

LeAnne Hogan, who had plans for her life, by going to a military school on a full scholarship, instead decides after her fathers sudden death to enlist in the military. Once in Afghanistan and with a promising career ahead of her, all changes when she is sent home after a mission left her missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred and not remembering all that happened to leave her that way. While in a military hospital recovering in Maryland, LeAnne meets Marci her roommate who has also been injured overseas, missing a leg due to a improvised explosive device while on a mission. They develop a strong connection, Marci has told LeAnne about where she was from in Washington State and about her ex husbands and little girl. Marci all of a sudden dies from a complication and LeAnne has a hard time dealing with it. LeAnne decides to leave the hospital before she has clearance, not telling anyone or taking any of her medicines with her, She buys a used car and starts driving towards her hometown and eventually to Marci's hometown, where she finds that Marci's little girl has gone missing, after her funeral. Here in Washington State, LeAnne is adopted by a large stray dog who becomes very protective of her, and also quite therapeutic for her and the two of them go one the search for the missing girl.
The book was interesting, but I could never quite connect with the main character as I found her to be too hardened by her life. I did love the inclusion of the dog, who like LeAnne had many issues.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Atria books for the ARC of this book.

As a lover of the Chet & Bernie series, I was very much interested in reading this new book from Spencer Quinn. I knew it would be a departure from the feel and tone of his other books. And in fact it was, but in a good way - and yet there were still similarities. I loved that it sometimes felt disjointed - because a combination of a brain injury and PTSD have left the main character, LeAnne Hogan, feeling completely disjointed. He did a great job of putting the reader in LeAnne’s shoes as she tries to come to grips with what’s happened to her body and her life. And then there’s the dog - another awesome dog as a major character in this book - and maybe, possibly, just a little bit more. I’m not sure I can say I “enjoyed” reading this one, there was some tough subject matter in it. But I’m certainly glad I read it, and if there’s ever a second installment of LeAnne’s story (he certainly left it open for that) it would definitely be high on my TBR list.

Copy provided by Netgalley and Atria Publishing in exchange for an unbiased review.

LeAnne has returned from Afghanistan mentally and physically scarred. Her rehabilitation will be long and slow but she is an impatient girl LeAnne also knows that her memory is shaky and faulty and that chunks of what she should remember as being imperative to her well being are missing.

Losing her room mate suddenly whilst in hospital triggers LeAnne into going back to the same town from which Marci came. Arriving there the distressing news that Marci's little girl has gone missing adds to the trauma. Adopted by a dog who is determined not to leave her side and who becomes more a guardian angel than a pet LeAnne now embarks on a dangerous mission, almost as dangerous as the Afghan one which she came back from. Will this finally help her to fill in the gaps in her memory and make her more at peace with not just the military but herself.

A very descriptive thriller combing the combat scene of Afghanistan alongside the peaceful little village in Washington State the contrasts in the two scenes could not have been more apparent. From the people inhabiting the two scenarios Americans in a village and Americans in the military the contrast was huge and added to the heightened tensions in the story.

The story moves in fits and starts, very much like the character of LeAnne who has moods of her own. It did not deter from the flow of the story at all.

Goodreads and Amazon review posted on 16/7/2017. Review on my blog 11/10/2017.

THE RIGHT SIDE is far from the typical cookie-cutter suspense novel. Starting with the main character, LeAnne Hogan, it is clear that Spencer Quinn eschewed the familiar for something with more bite. Hogan is an Army veteran of the war conflict in Afghanistan, badly wounded through those battles. She’s scarred across half her face and missing an eye. Clearly not your typical suspense heroine. Add to her physical wounds the emotional toil the war took on her and you have a fully fleshed out character worthy of the more than three hundred pages of this novel. The mystery, as it were, occurs when LeAnne’s bunkmate at the Walter Reed Medical Center dies suddenly. And just as abruptly LeAnne checks herself out of the treatment facility and heads across country to her dead roommate’s hometown. There she discovers that her roommate’s daughter, Mia, is missing. The balance of the book focuses on LeAnne’s dogged determination to find out what has happened to Mia. A second task also has LeAnne looking to find out who is responsible for the suicide attack that left her and several members of her unit wounded. At its core, a story isn’t about what a character does, but rather what a character pursues. Quinn has given his character LeAnne Hogan much to pursue, and the reader is blessed to have a front row seat. I will be looking to read more from this gifted author.

I'm not sure who wrote the synopsis for The Right Side.. I definitely didn't get the book the synopsis implied. I thought this would be a good gripping mystery, but it really wasn't. I'm a bit conflicted about my feelings on the story.

I did like the portrayal of LeAnne's PTSD. The story is told through her eyes. At times, the narrative felt chaotic and confused, much like it was probably in her brain. She loses time, thoughts and says things that don't make sense. She isn't really a very likable character, but I found myself sympathizing with her. She went through something horrifying in the war and was left broken. Through flashbacks, we get to see how she became so tough and what led her to be in the Army as well as what happened over in Afghanistan.

What I didn't really care for was the overall story. It takes over half the book before she even gets to the town. I didn't really understand her motivation for going to Marci's hometown. I never got the sense that they were particularly close from their time at the hospital. I also never got the sense that she was obsessed with finding Marci's daughter, Mia. There is another "mystery" but that was pretty easy to figure out before anyone else in the book. The ending was pretty open ended. I didn't get a sense of closure or the feeling that LeAnne would be OK.

I'd recommend giving this one a shot. I think it's one of those books you have to read and decide on for yourself. It is well written, I just was expecting a different story.

LeAnne Hogan left her eye behind in Afghanistan. She was a rising star in the military but returned home with brain damage and a brutally scarred face. While recuperating at Walter Reed, she meets Marci, her roommate, who dies unexpectedly. This sends LeAnne on the road, leaving Walter Reed against medical advice and AWOL. She travels to tiny Bellville WA, Marci's home town to meet her daughter, Mia. When LeAnne arrives, she has just missed Marci's funeral and Mia's disappearance. She is staying at small cabin on the outskirts of town where she is adopted by a dog of indeterminate breeding and demeanor. LeAnne names him Goody and he slowly becomes her talisman and her protector. LeAnne becomes obsessed with tracking down Mia. But the military is not done with her yet. LeAnne is forced to confront her demons and her lost memories back in Kabul. Vivid character development and discussion of the uselessness of war are the hallmarks of this book.

Published by Atria Books on June 27, 2017

Spencer Quinn is justly celebrated for his Chet and Bernie stories, which are light and amusing. The Right Side is dark and serious. About halfway through the book, however, a wonderful dog appears, although the dog isn’t Chet, who narrates the Chet and Bernie books. This dog, like the novel, is dark and serious. But she’s still a dog.

Readers who want a favorite author to write the same book over and over might dislike The Right Side. Readers who admire the ability and courage of a good writer who departs from a successful formula might like The Right Side even more than the Chet and Bernie novels.

Raised by a former Green Beret, LeAnne Hogan knows how to shoot. But she lost her shooting eye on a mission in Afghanistan and she has shrapnel embedded in her brain. Her memory is fuzzy as she recovers in Walter Reed, although she remembers the childhood that shaped her. As she recuperates, she has repeat visits from a psychiatrist and an Army intelligence officer, neither of whom she trusts.

LeAnne was in Afghanistan at the request of a female colonel who wanted her to join a team that would gather intelligence from Afghan women (on the dubious theory that women are more likely to talk to women). During the first third of the novel, LeAnne’s backstory alternates with her present, as she tries to cope with her injuries and memory loss, and with unexpected death, at Walter Reed and in her post-hospitalized life.

LeAnne’s experiences have changed her. Her injury has made it difficult for her to focus and to keep track of time. She’s become something of a bigot with regard to Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry. She’s gruff and short-tempered. She’s developed a sense of entitlement because of her military service and a sense of worthlessness because of her injury. In other words, she’s imperfect. That makes her interesting and realistic.

What happened on the mission that took her eye? LeAnne isn’t sure. The Captain from Army intelligence drops some hints, suggesting that there’s more to the story than LeAnne remembers. He keeps track of LeAnne as the story moves along, leaving the reader to wonder why he’s taking such an interest in her. And since LeAnne’s brain injury makes her a less than reliable narrator, part of the reader’s challenge is deciding whether LeAnne’s perceptions of reality are entirely accurate.

After this set-up, a dog appears. I’ll leave it to the reader to discover how that happens and the almost mythical role that the dog plays in LeAnne’s life, despite her general antipathy to dogs. Suffice it to say, it would be hard for a dog lover not to love this book.

A brief friendship at Walter Reed with a woman named Marci animates the rest of the novel, as LeAnne becomes embroiled in Marci’s past while trying to make sense of her own past and present. Other characters help or hinder Marci, but she would be largely directionless if it weren’t for the dog, who leads her in the directions that only make sense to dogs, but as dog lovers know, those directions often turn out to be the right ones.

Quinn honed his storytelling skills in the Chet and Bernie books, all of which I’ve enjoyed. He knows how to keep the story moving at a good pace without sacrificing characterizations or setting. As LeAnne moves around the country (and Afghanistan), Quinn always establishes a convincing sense of place. His supporting characters are convincing and, given the serious nature of the novel, LeAnne has more depth than Bernie (or Chet, for that matter).

A couple scenes in the book would be difficult to believe if not for the dog’s mythical quality. This is the sort of story that a reader believes because the reader wants to believe it, not because it’s particularly plausible. That Quinn made me believe the unlikely is one reason I loved The Right Side. LeAnne’s character development and the dog story are the other reasons. The twin mysteries (what happened in Afghanistan? what happened to a kid who goes missing midway through the story?) are entertaining enough, but this is a novel I admire for reasons other than the plot.

RECOMMENDED

This stand alone book is a departure from Spencer Quinn’s normal fare, which is much lighter in nature. It's the story of Sgt. LeAnne Hogan, who was injured in Afghanistan in an explosion and is now back home. Her memory is as damaged as her face due to a piece of shrapnel in her brain and she's also suffering from PTSD. Quinn does a great job of getting you to realize what it's like to live with only one eye.

LeAnne is a prickly character but I found she was relatable in her own weird way.

The story moves along at a good pace. It's got a jumpy quality to it, the same as LeAnne’s brain. Goody, the dog, doesn't show up until halfway through the book. Goody immediately bonds with LeAnne. It takes a while longer for the reverse to be true. I can't say that Goody seems totally believable but put that aside and keep with the story because one of the best parts of the book is watching them bond. My one complaint is that the various storylines wrap up a little too neatly.

My thanks to netgalley and Atria for an advance copy of the book.

Despite the cover image and many descriptions of this book, it is not about a woman and her dog. It is about a woman trying to find herself and a purpose in life after a devastating incident in Afghanistan which caused her to lose her eye and resulted in the deaths of several of her colleagues. Disappointingly, the dog does not appear until 50% of the way through the story.

Brief Summary: Army Sergeant LeAnne Hogan is in Walter Reed Medical Center following a failed mission in Afghanistan where most of her command died and where she lost her right eye and suffered gruesome injuries to her face. LeAnne protests psychiatric treatment and a prosthetic eye, struggles to remember what happened in Afghanistan and in the weeks after. She forms a close bond with her hospital roommate Marci, who has had her leg amputated. The two women try to cope with life after the Army and with PTSD. Marci dues suddenly due to a blood clot, and LeAnne leaves Walter Reed against medical advice. She heads west - towards her former home, and Marci's. Eventually she finds a dog - or the dog finds her - and the healing process begins.

What I Liked: I liked the dog, whom is eventually called Goody. Unfortunately she does not appear until the halfway point. Until then, the reader gets to know LeAnne in the present as a woman who is hurting emotionally and physically, and in the past as a great athlete and girl with ambition and a scholarship to West Point. Goody and LeAnne have a lot/hate relationship at first, but Goody comes to serve as LeAnne's protector and confidant. I enjoyed seeing this relationship grow. In the last 1/3 of the book, LeAnne helps Marci's daughter and in some way completes a final mission; this did seem meaningful and wrapped up the story nicely.

What I Didn't Like: I didn't really like LeAnne! I didn't connect with her, although I definitely had empathy for everything she has been through. She seemed pretty unlikeable to me, and I never found any of her choices or behaviors redeeming.

Final Thoughts: the narrative seemed disjointed to me and I wasn't sure where the author was headed with LeAnne's story. I feel misled that the story would be about a veteran and her service-type dog.

What I thought was going to be the story of a wounded warrior and a dog finding a missing child was not that at all.

A condensed version of the book’s description - LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan and came back missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred. Shattered by the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci, LeAnne finds herself driving across the country. When she arrives in Washington state that Marci called home, she makes the discovery that Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog seems to adopt LeAnne she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter.

This description is VERY misleading. As I said in the opening of this review, I thought I was going to get a mystery featuring a healing woman, a missing child and a dog. Instead I got a very confusing mix of info concerning LeAnne’s life. LeAnne’s story is told in flashbacks that were off putting and interrupted the flow of the story. Actually, flashbacks is the wrong word. It wasn’t flashbacks so much as it felt like the author just slapped something in the middle of a section I didn’t feel like it belonged in. It had a very disorganized feeling and I hate disorganization.

Now for the unbelievability factor. LeAnne is so distraught by the death of Marci that she goes across country to her hometown? I didn’t feel a connection between the two women at all. There wasn’t enough interaction between them for me to feel that would lead LeAnne to search out Marci’s hometown. In my opinion this book could have been much better with a focus on LeAnne and Marci getting to know each other, and the mystery surrounding Mia’s disappearance. But that’s not what readers are given. Instead, LeAnne this, LeAnne that until we finally meet the dog at the 50% mark and find out Mia is missing at 62%. I wish Mia’s disappearance and the dog could have been the focus of this book. More unbelievability were LeAnne’s injuries and all her activity afterwards. I just couldn’t …

This was my first book by Quinn and I might be willing to give him a second chance, but if he doesn’t grab me instantly in the next book, I won’t be finishing it. This book was a struggle to finish, but I kept reading in the hopes it would finally get to the mystery I wanted to read about. The mystery, when it finally made an appearance was lacking.

This is quite a departure from Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie mystery series. There is no gentle humor. There is no dog's point of view. No, in The Right Side, Spencer Quinn gives us edginess, uncertainty, and an extremely unpredictable hero with an equally unreadable dog.

LeAnne Hogan is a physical and psychological loose cannon. She's suffering from her injuries. She's suffering from PTSD. She's suffering from feelings of inadequacy and failure. She's not your usual choice for the hero of a book, and that's one of the things that makes The Right Side so good. You literally do not know which way LeAnne is going to jump from one scene to the next. Her anger is explosive and frightening, but Quinn portrays her in such a way that we instinctively know that she's a good person. We want her to get well. We want her to be safe and happy.

This woman needs help, but she's going to fight everyone who wants to give her that help every single step of the way. She even fiercely resists the dog, but this huge beast of unknown pedigree just ignores her. The dog is just as much a mystery as LeAnne, but you know this relationship will work because of one thing: the dog unerringly protects her blind side.

Quinn gives us two mysteries in The Right Side: one involving the missing child, and one that concerns what really happened to LeAnne in Afghanistan. Both are strong and grab your attention. Another mystery for me is... will Quinn write about LeAnne again? She's one of the best characters I've encountered in a long time, and I wouldn't mind reading more about her. But sometimes it's best to see just one adventure in a character's journey through life. Whatever the author does, I'm certainly glad I met LeAnne-- and I hope you'll decide to meet her, too.

Spencer Quinn is a storyteller for the ages. The Right Side is a great book for those looking for an engrossing read!

Poignant, eloquent, and spellbinding!

Sgt. LeeAnn Hogan is at Walter Reed, recovering from the disfiguring wounds and trauma suffered in a failed military operation in Afghanistan. Disoriented, angry and scared, she takes solace in the friendship with her hospital roommate, Marci. When Marci’s suddenly dies, it sends LeeAnn adrift; signing herself out of the hospital, she takes off to an uncertain future, deciding along the way to visit Marci’s hometown in Washington State. When she arrives, she finds that Marci’s daughter, Mia, has gone missing. Feeling a responsibility to help, Marci is compelled to help find the little girl, the last thread that binds her to her dead friend. Along the way, she’s forced to confront herself and her demons and start the road back to her new life.

The Right Side will definitely be one of my top books of 2017! More suspense than mystery, it was an fantastic read, and so hard to sum up all the things that I loved without rambling on too long! The pace was perfect, taking just the right amount of time to set up the main character and her world, not only LeeAnn’s mental state after she was wounded, but also snapshots of her formative years, providing a strong base for her reactions and experiences in the later part of the book, which made it feel more authentic and realistic. Superbly written, I was quickly drawn into LeeAnn’s struggles, I couldn’t help but admire her. Her pain, confusion and struggle is palpable, leaving me slightly uncomfortable (in a good way, if that’s at all possible!) and so grittily realistic that it’s almost like reading a true story. I loved that Goody is a reflection of LeeAnn herself, even if she doesn’t recognize it, and that sets her on a course to recover both mentally and physically. Tough, resolute and enigmatic, they make a perfect pair. The satisfyingly ambiguous ending left the door open for further adventures with LeeAnn and Goody, something I truly hope will come to be.

Favorite Quotes:

My high school coach always said morons make the same mistake twice and smart people make new ones.

LeAnne shouldered her duffel, kicked her boots to the back of the closet, left the uniforms on the rail. She closed the closet door, trapping Afghanistan in there, like a tiny battlefield.

The leash, still connected to the dog’s collar, lay on the ground. The dog snapped it up between her teeth and came closer, swinging her head back and forth, brandishing the leash, giving orders. There was no other interpretation possible. ‘I had a drill sergeant a lot like you,’ LeAnne said. She took the leash, and they continued on the long straightaway. ‘Except not nearly so good looking.’

Facts stirred down deep in LeAnne’s mind, like they were digging themselves up from under the ground.

My Review:

The Right Side was an extremely cleverly title as the phrase applied to several layers of this nuanced and well-crafted tale. Never judge a book by the cover – the storyline was next to nothing that I had expected, much to my unending delight. I was totally engrossed in the writing and fascinated by the complexity and development of the characters and storyline, both were unpredictable and indefatigably entertaining. I savored this wily writer’s main character of LeAnne, she was smart and snarky, and had been reared by her Green Beret father to be a tough cookie. However, a failed mission left her with life-long consequences and struggling with crippling pain, PTSD, and multiple medical issues including a head injury and a scrambled brain. LeAnne’s memory sparked on and off, as did her attention span, frustration tolerance, impulse control, and the filter between her brain and her tongue. Her mind was a bit of a quagmire and would drift at inopportune times and wander into comical visuals of doing or saying outlandish things, although unfortunately, she was also prone to occasionally voicing these errant or cartoonish thoughts aloud without realizing. Although I cannot imagine anything more disheartening than to be the cusp of solving a puzzle but to totally lose the train of thought in a dead end or fragmented jumble.

Midway through the book LeAnne had made a cross-country road trip and was deeply embroiled in a mystery and the family issues of her last hospital roommate. Finding an abandoned stray dog led to her deliverance and assisted in her recovery, although the dog had initially presented a vexing problem, as LeAnne had never cared to have a pet, yet couldn’t bring herself to leave the oddly behaving dog at a kill shelter. I am a complete and total sucker for animals and I totally adored this ingenious dog. The storyline was relevant, well-paced, intriguing, and thoughtfully constructed, while the writing was creative and well detailed, emotive, highly engaging, and cleverly executed. The Right Side was my first Spencer Quinn experience and one I plan to repeat again and again.

The Right Side is a very different book from what I’ve come to expect from Spencer Quinn. It is an excellent, moving portrayal of the struggles of an injured vet to regain comfort in herself and in her surroundings. LeAnne Hogan is not pleasant or likable, but you can understand her anger and her fears, her inability to cope with the everyday that is so different from her life before the incident that took her eye and left shrapnel in her brain. Spencer helps the reader understand LeAnne by interspersing memories of her past between the actions of the present. Goody, is in some ways a reflection of LeAnne. She is a strong dog, clearly wounded in the past but still skilled and determined. Goody saves LeAnne from herself, ultimately giving LeAnne the will to continue.

The second half of the book is devoted to LeAnne solving the mystery behind the disappearance of Marci’s daughter. Troubles with memory and temper aside, LeAnne tackles the reason behind Mia’s disappearance.

The Right Side is a novel that packs a powerful one - two punch. It forces the reader to look at the inner experience of veterans returning from war, and reminds readers to consider the experiences of women in war. It also asks if we really are able to give veterans what they need. Both LeAnne and Goody are unforgettable.

5 / 5

I received a copy of The Right Side from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom