The Good Boy

Written by Theresa Schwegel

Narrated by Luke Daniels

Edgar award winner Theresa Schwegel returns with The Good Boy, her most dramatic and emotional novel to date, a family epic that combines the hard-boiled grit of her acclaimed police thrillers with an intimate portrait of a young boy trying to follow his heart in an often heartless city.

For Officer Pete Murphy, K9 duty is as much a punishment as a promotion. When a shaky arrest reignites a recent scandal and triggers a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, all eyes are on Pete as the department braces for another media firestorm.

Meanwhile, Pete's eleven-year-old son Joel feels invisible. His parents hardly notice him—unless they're arguing about his "behavioral problems"—and his older sister, McKenna, has lately disappeared into the strange and frightening world of teenagerdom. About the only friend Joel has left is Butchie, his father's furry "partner."

When Joel and Butchie follow McKenna to a neighborhood bully's party, illegal activity kicks the dog's police training into overdrive, and soon the duo are on the run, navigating the streets of Chicago as they try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys—bad guys who may have a very personal interest in getting some payback on Officer Pete Murphy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Nov 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781427231536

Theresa Schwegel

Theresa Schwegel is a Loyola University graduate and the recipient of an MFA in screenwriting at Chapman University. Her debut novel, Officer Down, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was short-listed for the Anthony Award. In 2008, she received the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation. She lives in Chicago.

Reviews for The Good Boy

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is about a Chicago police officer, his canine partner and his young son. The son takes the dog and follows his sister to a party where someone is shot and the dog bites someone else. The boy is afraid the dog will be punished so he and the dog run away to find a judge to help them. This may not seem like the most sensible move, but it seemed logical to the boy. The rest of the book alternates between the father's search for his son through the gang-infested streets of Chicago and the son's journey.I found it very difficult to get into this book. I didn't like either the style of writing or the plot. Part of the problem is my own personal dislike for books written in the present tense. It also seemed to take forever for the author to dribble out explanations for why the police officer has been demoted and his family is in turmoil. This book wasn't awful but it was just not for me, I found it completely uninvolving. I kept reading only to find out what happened to the dog.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[shesinplainview · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Hardest book I've tried to read in a long time. I really tried. The premise of the story is good but the writing is very difficult to follow. The things that need going into in detail are not and the things that don't matter as much are detailed to the nth degree. I hate giving up on a book. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday, can't make any promises though.

[nyiper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had to read some of the other reviews first---as a CD this moved right along but yes, it was frustrating to hear Pete being so overwhelmed --- in a search for his missing son and dog, but with his life. Joel and Butch were wonderful---but in some ways not nearly smart enough for living in Chicago to go on a "walk" to find the judge. Understandably, he felt he had no alternatives. I felt horrible for both of them and the circumstances they found themselves in---especially near the end where I really wanted to know that there was going to be a followup for the "other" dogs to be rescued.

[sarah_gruwell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book was ARC copy given by publisher through the GoodReads FirstReads program. Thanks for the book!Joel's and Butchie's relationship is what first drew me to this book. I'm a huge dog lover and finding a book chronicling a boy's and dog's journey through the rough streets of Chicago instantly pinged my "want to read!" monitor. That relationship was one of the things that kept me reading throughout. The attraction between these two characters shone with strength and love. The lengths that this kid was willing to go for his furry friend brought tears to my eyes at such devotion. I can only hope I'd go through the same lengths for my two fuzzy buds. The character of Joel really made the book for me along with his relationship with his dog. The smarts and observational skills he possessed boggles my mind at times; I think I can safely say we have another Sherlock Holmes or Alexander the Great, another world class detective or military genius, on our hands. I don't think too many other 11 year olds could have survived navigating the crime-ridden streets of Chicago quite as well, even with a furry partner along. And yet, for all that smarts, Joel is still underneath it all, a kid. His innocence shines through in his vivid imagination of a industrial complex being a fortress, his belief that one individual can solve his entire situation, and his unwavering view of his dad as a hero. The author was able to balance the innocence and intelligence beautifully so that Joel shone as a well-rounded character that I came to adore.While Joel's and Butchie's journey was the main reason I kept reading and was my main point of love for this book, the other elements were hit or miss for me. The parts with his dad Pete tracking him over Chicago's streets and the crime-solving parts, while interesting, also bored me a bit. They almost felt a bit too rational when compared with Joel's and Butchie's emotional story. I know they were told from the POV of an experienced cop with a lot of issues so they'd be more rational. But it was that very rational mode of thinking, that bitterness of life's experiences, that turned me off from Pete. His dedication as a father inspired me, but I just found him a tad too boring. The streets of Chicago came alive in this author's hands. I felt like I was walking the streets with our heroes, digging in the trash with them, feeling the cold rain on my cheek, and sneaking under porches and behind bins with them as they hid from the "bad guys". The book illustrates the author's very intimate knowledge of Chicago with very specific locales, street layouts, and way of life on those streets. I enjoyed that vividness of setting and made me picture everything in my head perfectly.The other parts with Joel's family, the parts with McKenna and Sarah, were intriguing. The journey of this family from loving and settled to broken and dysfunctional fascinated me to a degree as I was able to see how so much had gone wrong so quickly. Both ladies were real people with all the foibles of the regular jo-smo on the street and all the issues today's world can throw at ya. Together with Joel and Pete, they're a family with some serious issues that aren't all solved by the end of the book, but I can see a very definitive strength-ing starting to develop.For the most part, this book was a real page-turner. The mean streets of Chicago came to intense life as Joel and Butchie journeyed their way to the one person they believe could help them in a setting so vivid I could smell the concrete. The journey of a dysfunctional family to the start of a healing process touched the heart strings and made me shakily smile. And while the crime-solving bits with Pete bored me at times, I stilled was kept interested enough to keep reading and find out what happened. This book touches the heart and makes me think at the same time. Definitely a great one of you're in the mood for great characters, a touching story, and a fascinating plot.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I tried three times to really get into this book. Normally I like police procedurals, but the story felt contrived, the characters not real, and I couldn't find anybody except the dog to root for. Not a bad book, but not one I'll be pulling off the shelf and shoving at someone else. I barely made it through about 75%.

[wcath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Good Boy by Theresa Schwegel is the story of a dysfunctional family who are all going their own way, caught up in their own dramas and not paying attention to each other at all. Father Pete Murphy is a K-9 cop, demoted and unhappy. Mother Sarah Murphy is busy wallowing in alcohol and self-pity, on the telephone complaining to her family and friends. Teenage daughter McKenna has grown sullen and secretive, leaving the youngest child Joel lonely and ignored. Joel, though, still feels protective of his sister and when he learns that she is sneaking out to go to a forbidden party, he follows her and brings Butchie, his father's police dog. The story follows Joel and Butchie's journey on the run after things go incredibly wrong at the party. Pete is in a race to find his son and his canine partner before something terrible happens to them. I found the plot to be a bit unbelievable in places and it moved a little slower than I would have liked but overall I enjoyed the book. I would say that The Good Boy is less a thriller and more the story of a dysfunctional family coming together to save on of their own.

[cdhtenn2k10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't really care for this book. The dialogue is good, the characters are real enough, and most descriptions are clear. Sometimes the story details got a bit vague, and characters make choices that only make sense as a way to advance the plot. The story is from two perspectives: the father, Pete Murphy, and his son, Joel Murphy. Set up like a chase, the perspective switches between the two as Pete races to find Joel, who is on the run. Normally that's fine, one character pursuing the other. Unfortunately, I found Joel's perspective to be padded and uninteresting, as he went from place to place and slept a lot. Pete's pursuit of his son was more interesting, but seemed to meander.I did like the dog.I can't say I would recommend this book.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Good Boy is a book about a policeman (Pete) who has a drub sniffing dog for the police force (Butchie) who is a family pet. One night his daughter goes to a party and Pete's eleven year old son (Joel) sneaks out with Butchie and follows her. While hiding the dog smells drugs and bolts from Joel and bites someone. In the confusion someone pulls out a gun and an innocent boy is shot. Fearing that bad things will happen Joel takes off with Butchie. The mystery is twofold with policeman Pete trying to locate his son and the dog and at the same time piecing together exactly what happened at the party. I thought the book was very good with the excepting that the sections with Joel and Butchie's seemingly aimless wanderings dragged on too long for my tastes.

[kalky_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love crime novels, so I requested Theresa Schwegel's book THE GOOD BOY from Netgalley in exchange for my unbiased review.In the book, Joel Murphy is the eleven-year-old son of embattled K-9 police officer Pete Murphy. Joel's two closest confidants are McKenna and Molly, his older sister and a childhood friend, and they are both more interested in being teenage girls than kindness toward Joel. Joel's only remaining friend seems to be Butch, his dad's K-9 partner. Joel and Butch follow McKenna to a party and end up dodging trouble as a result. What follows are the adventures of a boy and his dog and Peter Murphy's desperate attempts to find them.THE GOOD BOY is not face-paced, and its characters--other than than Butch--are not engaging. I struggled mightily with this book while trying to like it. While reading, I was certain that this was the second or third book in a series, because the back-story for the Murphy family seemed full of holes. Sadly, that's not the case, so the reader is left to flounder in incomplete background and constant references to the unknown.Overall, Schwegel's writing is good. I wish I had liked this book more because Peter, Joel, and Butch are interesting characters, and if they had been immersed in a more complete story, I would have enjoyed hanging out with them. I'll look for other books by the author, but I won't recommend this particular novel.

[lostinalibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After being demoted to the K-9 unit because of a past incident, officer Pete Murphy has been forced to downsize his life: smaller house, poorer neighbourhood. His wife now spends her time on the phone complaining to friends and family about him, his teenaged daughter, McKenna, has become sullen and rebellious and his son, eleven-year-old Joel, is neglected and spends most of his time with Butchie, his father’s canine partner. Joel is smart and sensitive and, recognizing the dangers of McKenna’s behaviour coupled with parental neglect, he is determined to protect her.When this protectiveness leads to a confrontation with some dangerous gangbangers causing Butchie to attack someone, Joel decides the only person who can help save Butch is a judge his dad once protected. Unfortunately, he and Butch must cross Chicago to reach her. So with very little money, no food, and little knowledge of the areas they will be crossing, the pair embark on a journey which will take them into some of the worst places Chicago has to offer.When Pete discovers his son gone, he immediately sets out to find him. Unfortunately, the circumstances of Joel’s disappearance set him off in the wrong direction and things just keep going from bad to worse. The Good Boy is more character- than plot-driven and the tension in the book is created more by small incidences (one regarding a cat is particularly disturbing) and mistaken assumptions than by any great mystery. Even Pete’s original transgression, the reason for his demotion, is never fully explained and is less important than the ripples it has caused in the lives of Pete and his family. The book is divided between Pete’s and Joel’s stories and they are both sympathetic characters. Joel is particularly likeable and his journey across Chicago, fraught with danger at every turn is, to me, the best part of the book. Pete, although a little less likeable, seems like a good man and, possibly, a good cop who makes some bad decisions.The Good Boy is more a story about human frailty than a thriller, about how people get caught up in their own little dramas, ignoring the rest of the world around them and, by doing so, let real bad things happen. With the exception of Pete, Joel, and Butch, most of the rest of the characters tend to be one-dimensional whose sole purpose seems to be to give Pete and Joel a motive for their actions. Oddly, for the most part, this works by keeping the reader’s focus on the main protagonists. This is not your average thriller, there are no big crimes, but it is a very engrossing tale and well worth a read for anyone looking for something more nuanced than your average thriller or police procedural.

[khamneithang-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Good Boy by Theresa Schwegel is a compelling and painful story of a dysfunctional family. Pete Murphy is a police officer who has made mistakes in the past. His wife Sarah has turned to alcohol in frustration. Their teenage daughter McKenna has turned rebellious and moves around with the wrong crowd. Their 11-year-old Joel Murphy turns to his father's furry "partner" Butchie for company. It is a sad state of affairs in the family. Together but disjointed, it is a family in a mess.When Mc Kenna goes to a neighborhood bully's party, Joel and Butchie follow her. Trained to detect drugs and offenders as an officer with Chicago Police Department's K-9 Unit, Butchie bites a man with drugs, who then shoots at both the dog and Joel, accidentally hitting and wounding another party goer. Joel takes Butchie and runs.Back home, his parents Pete Murphy and Sarah are desperate. They are barely speaking to each other as their marriage has been on the rocks. The pain and tension is palpable. Joel's rebellious teenage sister, McKenna, is filled with guilt as she blames herself for what happened. Pete is also slapped a lawsuit by the gang member who was bitten by Butchie.Pete sets out to find Joel and Butchie. But the task is easier said than done. Searching for Joel and Butchie in the mean streets of Chicago is like searching for a needle in a haystack. How will Joel and Butchie survive with just $2 before they find help? Will Pete find them before they encounter more dangers? Will Pete and Sarah survive the ordeal as husband-wife or will their shaky marriage crumble under the weight of anxiety?The Good Boy by Theresa Schwegel is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that explores essential issues of life like mistakes, love, relationship and family. Theresa also movingly portrayed the relationship between Joel and Butchie which is a plus for the book. The characters are simply amazing. Love him or hate him, Pete's there for his family. You can only feel sympathy for Sarah and McKenna. As for Joel, he is mature beyond his age. I think the characters are really well conceived, and believable. Many families may be able to relate with the Murphys.

[klarsenmd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the LT early reviewer program.. This isn't the type of book I would typically chose, but gave it the benefit of the doubt because of it's description as a great mystery. I was initially intrigued by the dysfunctional family and the K-9 partner who seems to drive the story. Sadly, I just couldn't make myself get interested. The pace was just much too slow. I dislike having to force myself to pick up a book, just to finish it. This is what happened with this one. The characters were realistically flawed but I couldn't make myself care what was happening to them. Despite the technical skill with which the author writes, the prose lacked the sense of urgency I felt it should have held. An 11 year old boy is missing and the family handles it like it's just another day, communicating poorly and throwing snide remarks at each other? I was surpised by everyone's reactions expect the dog. Maybe that was the point? All in all, just not my cup of tea.

[kathyc248 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was looking forward to reading the Good Boy by Theresa Schwegel. I had not read any of her other books but was intrigued by the description of the story of Joel the eleven year old boy taking off with his dad's K9 partner Butchie while trying " to stay one step ahead of the bad guys" after following his teenage sister to a neighborhood party. This will be good for those who are familiar with these Chicago neighborhoods mentioned in this story but the days long trek by the boy and dog while his dad looks for him seem to drag for me. I enjoyed the book but it is not one I would reread. I am not sure what category this book belongs in ...not a real mystery not a thriller and not a psychological suspense but maybe a combination of all three.

[shelleyraec · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Good Boy, Theresa Schewgel’s fifth novel, is part crime thriller, part family drama unfolding through the perspectives of Detective Peter Murphy and his son, Joel.After a manufactured scandal nearly ruined his career, Pete was demoted to the K9 unit and forced to relocate his family after sacrificing their home to pay legal bills. Drowning in self pity, anger and guilt, he doesn’t have the energy to confront his wife about her excessive drinking, his teenage daughter about her rebellious attitude, or his son’s odd behaviour. It is all Pete can do to get through each day, his only comfort his belief that things couldn’t get much worse, until they do.Eleven year old Joel doesn’t really understand what is going on with his parents, but he knows his sister is in trouble and he desperately wants to help. Trailing McKenna to a party with his dad’s canine partner, Butch, at his side, Joel is horrified when everything goes wrong and the only thing he can think to do is run.The Good Boy is a gritty, character driven novel. The loss of innocence is a major theme of the story played out in the lives of the characters, highlighted by Pete’s disillusionment with the justice system and contrasted by Joel’s simple faith in his ability to save his family.Though I thought the pace overall was a little slow and the tension uneven, I was drawn in by the interesting characters and the desire to learn their fate.Joel is an immediately appealing character, bright, loyal and resourceful but, ignored by his parents who are too caught up in their own issues to pay much attention to their children, he is also lonely and misguided. Joel’s effort to traverse Chicago to save Butchie, and his family, is a tense adventure as he tries to avoid being caught before he can reach the one person he thinks can save them.Mystery shrouds the facts of Pete’s transgressions, though it is obvious he, or at least was, is a cop who believes in the truth and privilege of his duty. However, already overwhelmed and disillusioned his son’s disappearance pushes him over the edge and suspecting a street gang after revenge is to blame, goes after those he thinks are responsible. Pete is a decent man buckling under the strain of circumstance, despite the mistakes he makes I found him a character deserving compassion and felt that Schwegal portrayed his sadness, frustration and anger in a realistic manner.Though I was expecting something more plot driven from novel, I did enjoy the strong characterisation and I’m interested in reading more from Theresa Schwegal. Overall, I found The Good Boy to be a good book.

[ricktheobald · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Theresa Schwegel’s The Good Boy is a fascinating tale of good versus evil, misunderstandings versus reality, and a well intending but nevertheless dysfunctional family in need of rethinking their priorities.Pete Murphy, a K-9 police officer in Chicago finds himself on the defensive against his fellow workers, his wife and both of his children….their conflicts stem as much from stubbornness and self-absorption as they do from miscommunication and busy lives going in different directions. His eleven year old son, Joel, becomes the central focus of the story, along with Butchie, the German Shephard-Malmoit mix police dog, who is, in fact, a very good boy!The story involves misguided youths involved with drugs and gangs, and a shooting that is treated a bit casually from my perspective…. Joel soon becomes a runaway as he attempts to connect with a female judge that had had a previous relationship with his dad, and been the focus of a scandal that did severe damage to Pete’s relationship with his wife and with his kids. Joel’s trek on foot through various parts of Chicago starts out interesting, but tended to lose its appeal after 100+ pages of rambling through the city, encountering the expected bums, homeless, gang folk, etc….I enjoyed the first 30-40% of this book and felt I was on a highly charged fast paced adventure, but soon became disenchanted as the events became trivial and meaningless… I ultimately found myself relieved when the tale came to its logical conclusion.

[somanyyarns · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not a fan of books about dogs; I requested this from Early Reviewers primarily because it's a mystery. It turned out to be an interesting take on a tale of a boy and his dog, with a complicated mystery-type plot as well. The story was interesting enough to keep me engaged, and I cared enough about the characters, including the dog, to want to find out what happened to them.

[rita_h-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am not familiar with Ms. Schwegel's work before this, but I saw that she writes stand-alone detective books, this one featuring a dog, and that piqued my interest when viewing it on Netgalley. After reading the first chapter I was sure I knew what genre this story fell into, but even now I am not sure. It's not a classic detective story, not a mystery, not a thriller. It is a story that involves Pete, an officer now assigned to the K-9 unit, his disgruntled wife, his out of control teenaged-daughter, and his specially challenged younger son, Joel. But basically it is the story of his son and his dog, Butch, who are featured predominately over the course of just a few days. Pete tries to find Joel after he disappears one night with the father's K-9 partner because he feels he and the dog are in danger from a drug-dealing gang who crash the party his sister is attending.
My uncertainty comes from what I expected the plot to be like, and what it turned out to be. Ms. Schwegel is a talented author who writes an intelligent story, but I like suspense and intensity when I read this book genre. The story seems to progress slowly, highlighted by appearances of drug gangleaders, shifty lawyers, prostitutes, and rebellious teen witnesses. The clues as to why Pete got transferred down to K-9, why his wife resents him, why Joel acts the way he does are distributed in a stingy manner, that makes for more confusion than suspense. The Good Boy is told from various third-person viewpoints: mostly about the dad Pete, alternating with his son Joel, whom I suspect is supposed to be living with high-functioning autism. I may be off the mark, but my son has Asperger's Syndrome, and his characterization didn't ring true for me at all. Granted, it's fiction and her right to make the character any way she would like, but I found myself waiting to read the chapters regarding Pete. While the descriptions of Joel's adventures were almost lyrical, I felt the suspenseful momentum stagnated when he was spotlighted.
I am not trying to come across as too critical with this story, but I just feel that it would be more suitable for a reader of literary crime fiction. I like my crime hot, with a side of threatening criminals and and a heaping of intense moodiness. This story did not appease that need for me. 3.5 stars (extra half for quality writing)

[lettypearl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an ARC from the publisher. Officer Pete Murphy has been assigned to K9 duty, rather than given the promotion he deserved, as a result of a baseless scandal from an earlier assignment. Pete is one of the good guys who believes in police work rather than merely policing, but finds his life spiraling downward as the family loses their home and is forced to move to a rental house in a different neighborhood. His wife, Sarah, has problems of her own and wants to blame Pete for everything. Daughter McKenna has become a typical moody, secretive teenager, and eleven year old Joel is at loose ends with his parents fighting and his sister no longer the friend she once was - his only friend now is his father's police dog, Butchie. While Pete gets involved in another police problem, Sarah oblivious, Joel tries to save his sister from herself and bad friends by following her to a party where Joel witnesses a shooting after Butchie bites a gang member. Joel runs from the bad guys who are out to get him and Butchie both, trying to find the friendly judge who believes can save them both. At first I thought this book was slow moving & almost uninteresting in places, particularly where it concerned Sarah & her problems, but I soon realized that every bit of it was necessary to build the circumstances that allowed McKenna to get to the party, and allowed Joel to sneak out to follow her. All in all, the book was exciting, and enjoyable, and kept me reading to find out what happened to both Joel and Butchie.