Crocker, on how his dog of the same name is different from the titular canine in his novel, Finding Jack:My Jack is dead lazy. His idea of exertion is swallowing.About Finding Jack, from the publisher:
When the war ends, how do you leave your best friend behind?Learn more about the book and author at Gareth Crocker's website and blog.
After losing his young family in a tragic accident, Fletcher Carson joins the flagging war effort in Vietnam. Deeply depressed, he plans to die in the war. But during one of his early missions, Fletcher rescues a critically wounded yellow Lab whom he nurses back to health and names Jack. As Fletcher and Jack patrol and survive the forests of Vietnam, Fletcher slowly regains the will to live.At the end of the war, the U.S. Government announces that due to the cost of withdrawal, all U.S. dogs serving in the war have been declared “surplus military equipment” and will not be transported home. For the hundreds of dog handlers throughout Vietnam, whose dogs had saved countless lives, the news is greeted with shock and disbelief. For Fletcher, he knows that if he abandons Jack, then he too will be lost. Ordered to leave Jack behind, he refuses—and so begins their journey.
Based on the actual existence and abandonment of canine units in Vietnam, Gareth Crocker’s Finding Jack is a novel of friendship and love under desperate circumstances that will grab your heart and won’t let go.
The Page 69 Test: Finding Jack.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Gareth Crocker & Jill, Hannah, Rusty and Jack.
--Marshal Zeringue
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