I love these books.

We have a dog, Bella, we adopted from Denver’s Dumb Friend’s League. She’s a sweet dog. It takes her one minute to get over her shyness and to get to know other people, then she’ll nudge her big, giant head under their hands in constant attempts to get their love if they stop petting her for even a moment.

However, except for our other dog, Toffee, who is part of her pack, Bella is also dog-reactive. And, sadly, she has every reason to be — she was attacked two times on our on-leash walks around the neighborhood. Bella doesn’t start fights, but by all that is righteous, she knows how to end them. Both times that dogs bolted up to her, we ended the fight by forcibly separating those other dogs from Bella’s jaws clasped around their throats.*

I often think of that combination of sweet and tough, when necessary, when I read the series of books by Glen Erik Hamilton, starring Van Shaw. But before I go into Van’s character, a few words about Mr. Hamilton’s writing.

It is tremendous. It is terrific. It is incomparable. I want to say, in all my envious fury, “that bastard can write like an angel.”

Van (short for Donovan, but his grandfather went by Dono) Shaw was raised by his grandfather, after the older man got out of prison, so Van got passed around the foster homes for a bit, prior to it. Dono was a thief, and a very good one (the prison stint not withstanding), and he taught his grandson a great deal.