David Docherty

The Fifth Season

Pocket Books, 2003.

Juan Fernandez was waiting for Sam in Regent's Park, just before dusk. The park was left to a few joggers and winos bedding down for the night. Fernandez, his arms wrapped around his body, gazed meditatively at the statue of a small brown terrier..."Amazing story, this, my friend," said Fernandez in his light, slightly accented baritone. "The dog was subjected to vivisection operations for two months at University College. Every time a wound healed, the dog was opened again. And you English call bullfighting cruel."

"There used to be an older statue here," said Sam. "Taken down in 1906 after it provoked riots between 'brown doggers', who were violent anti-vivisectionists, and medical students who were pro. The new one was erected in the 80's'

Visitors hoping to find this statue will be disappointed. The Brown Dogger riots did happen but the memorial fountain was not in Regent's Park: both the original 1906 monument and the 1985 replacement were sited in Battersea Park. However the 'Deputy Director General of the National Crime Squad' has come here with more immediate matters on his mind: the terrorist bombings at 'Eastfield University.' His Spanish colleague's suggestion that the Mafia is involved is met with incredulity.

scattering a gathering of ducks, [he] headed towards the zoo, offering his customary nod to the black bear isolated at the top of its ziggurat-shaped hill

As the plot develops international ramifications Sam goes for a run to puzzle things out. The evidence eventually leads back to a house overlooking the park, but a clandestine search reveals that 'the Syrian bird has taken wing'.