Unleashed: Case of the Gold Retriever

By: Erik Schubach

Narrated by: Claire Buchignani

Finnegan May has had an eventful time in Manhattan since she first moved to New York City. Her unique profession and quirky, bubbly personality endear her to everyone who meets her.

Like a magnet for trouble, Finnegan finds herself embroiled in a string of robberies that has spanned decades while she tries to rescue a stray golden retriever that dropped a bag of money at her feet.

It is up to Detective Jane McLeary to solve the famous Broadway Cat thefts before Finnegan finds herself knee-deep in things yet again.

©2018 Erik Schubach (P)2018 Erik Schubach

Erik has been able to write an Awesome story!

This is the 3rd instalment in dog Walter's take about the small business woman who's name I would Bitch let's just call her F. At the point she is well and truly in love with the Bitch woman she once called jerk cop on a posted it note. Now a much loved token between them especially with all the wrongful addressed F seems to find herself in the middle of, F is just talented that wa y , which is just One reason way unleaseshed is a pathway a minute. Like the whole series .

Sweet...

Funny, sweet, a tad predictable but, how can you not love Finnegan, the in-denial OCD, quirky, snarky, passionate main character and her canine friends? A stray golden retriever in Central Park who brings bags of money and jewels to Finnegan for some food, a gorgeous detective love interest, emotionally stunted best friends of each main character finding each other and a connection that may last forever....what is there not to love in this book?!!

Once again, reader Claire Buchignani is EXCELLENT!

Audiobook fans are treated to another wonderful installment of the Unleashed series narrated by the splendid Claire Buchignan and written by talented Erik Schubach. Finnegan Temperance May, dog walker extraordinaire of Manhattan, finds herself involved in yet another mystery. Finn responds to a 'Broken Leash' alert for a loose and running chihuahua who she intercepts trying to make her way to Central Park. After handing the dog off to her walker, she encounters an older Golden Retriever that appears friendly enough towards her and her Bordie Collie Calvin. He seems reluctant to follow her home. Before she and Calvin could exit the park, the golden returns to hand her a black plastic bag full of cash. She turns the cash in at the police station and she is in the soup yet again as serial numbers confirm it was money reported stolen in a robbery eight years earlier that was the last job from a series of unsolved thefts dubbed the Broadway Cat burglaries. The police plan to comb Central Park in search of any other stolen property.
Finn is understandably concerned about the golden retriever who will be captured by an animal control worker and taken to the municipal dog pound. It is her hope that the dog can be sent to Central Park Tails, the dog rescue shelter Finn funded with money she was awarded as Calvin's caregiver. As it happens the golden retriever belongs to the now elderly man responsible for the Broadway Cat burglaries. He was hospitalized for a time, which made it possible for the dog to get loose. Being used to bury the stolen money, the dog went for what he remembered possibly as a payment for Finn's treats as he was unkempt and definitely hungry. The burglar tells Finn a story about why he engaged in the thefts and why the stolen goods were buried unused. Because of several mitigating factors, the elderly man is given probation and community service working at Finn's Central Park Tails dog rescue shelter.
There is character development throughout the book as well as the series among the primary and secondary players. Finn grows more comfortable with her sexuality, in the form of her interest in Detective Jane McLeary. Her relationship with her cop roommate continues to grow with the women confessing their love for each other at various times in the story. Finn reconnects with a childhood girlfriend who grows into a relationship with Jane's ex Jessie. Finn's lawyer cousin starts to date her ex-boyfriend Raphael in book 2 and they are doing well. Finn's brother and sister-in-law move to Manhattan in book 1 and are expecting a baby girl.
In this previously mentioned manner, the writer builds the Unleashed world Finn and the others share in the foreground of Manhattan, New York City. That such an optimistic, charming personality as Finn can blossom in the Big Apple is delightful as we are given a bright spot in a city known for harsh reality. The rate at which the writer introduces key elements in the book is perfect and the distribution of varying types of elements in the narrative is optimal. Both result in a narrative that is exciting from start to finish, serving to keep readers fully engaged and craving more.

Lots of fun.

I enjoyed Unleashed:Case of the Gold Retriever. Yes, you have to suspend belief for a short while. But it’s all in the name of fun and a bit of light reading. Short note: The audio version narrator calls the book title as Unleashed:Case of the GOLDEN Retriever, both at the beginning and ending of the audio version. Surprised that was left to stand.

just as good as the others

i really love how he makes her neurotic and ocd. it's pretty cute. i hope there is another in the series!

A story in desperate need of an editor

Overall, it’s nice to see the characters again but this is not a very well put together addition to the series. It felt rushed and needed to be run through an editor two or three more times to cut a lot of things and expand on others.

For example, the previous two books in the series had a good of timing when using fourth wall breaks this one did not. In the last novel, the narrator would address the reader sparingly and at a point in the story that added to the comical effect, very much in an “I know what you are thinking” sort of way. In this one, it was used in places that didn’t feel appropriate in the story and was used so often that it felt gimmicky as opposed to charming.

Another major problem is that this story is incredibly exposition heavy. Nearly every chapter has someone explaining who they are, why they are doing what they did or going through some unnecessary flashback. There’s an entire chapter that is told from another character’s perspective that could have been cut entirely and was simply there to spout a long ranting exposition, which was obviously intended to try to be character-building but was nothing but drawn out exposition that was already nicely summed up in the previous books. Ironically, it probably would have improved her character more if the author hadn’t included the chapter, allowing the reader to see the emotional response instead of being told about it.

Lastly, the “mystery” was completely pointless and unnecessary. The last two books weren’t exactly thrilling “whodunnit” novels either but the crimes in those stories helped further the plot and did ligitimately feel like they belonged in the book. The mystery factor in this book was almost non-existent to the point where it could have be scrapped entirely and just left this as a slice of life story. It really was completely pointless, added nothing and had the potential to be interesting if the author had devoted much more time to the mystery in his “mystery novel”.

The characters are still fun to read and I will give the author credit for having a sympathetic, though cliched, antagonist. It just wasn’t worth wading through the sea of exposition to get to them.

The voice acting is on point and just as well performed as the other two novels.