This was a weird little story covering the life of a dog, told from the dog’s POV, who has vague memories of having been human once. He remembers a wife and daughter and remembers being murdered. The story meanders through several major events in the dog’s life as he learns to fend for himself and tries to track down the remains of his old life and his murderer. I was entertained enough to finish the entire book, but found the conclusion unsatisfying.

Audiobook version, purchased from Audible. Damian Lynch gives an excellent performance.
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This is very different from James Herbert’s usual fiction—a fantasy rather than horror, and more touching, even funny.
    We first meet Fluke as a tiny puppy among his little brothers and sisters, on sale at a street market filled with noisy (and smelly) giants (the descriptions of how we humans smell to a dog are graphic!). Catching the eye of a kindly old man, he’s soon carried off through the busy streets and road traffic, none of which he’s ever seen before and all described the way they must look to a very small dog. His first home is not a bad one either: true, he makes all the usual puppy-mistakes—crapping on the bedroom carpet and innocently shredding a pile of female clothing—but there are also warm evenings in front of the fire and a lawn to race, jump and roll about on during the long sunny days. We’re not exactly sure why (most likely that shredded laundry) but eventually the man, very reluctantly, carries him off again to the Battersea Dogs’ and Cats’ Home nearby. He doesn’t stay there long though, escaping to finally end up out on the London streets as a stray. There he gets lucky, meeting Rumbo, a much older and more streetwise dog who takes him in hand (or paw) and shows him how to survive.
    That’s how it all begins, but from fairly early on it’s clear that there’s something very odd about little Fluke. He has strange flashes of memory: of another, much smaller, town surrounded by green fields; of a second mother, a human mother; of a much younger woman and a little girl in a house at the end of a narrow muddy lane. Human memories. How could a puppy come to have human memories? That’s the real story as Fluke sets out to discover the answer: who he once was, who he has become now, and why.
    I liked the story itself hugely, if not the philosophy behind it. This “explanation” is the sort of lazy-minded cod-mysticism I won’t bother going into, but the story itself is anything but: it’s gritty, poignant, often funny—and with a real extra twist at the end I didn’t see coming at all. Particularly well-imagined is the way everything looks to this puppy: because he’s part dog and part human, the world around him is vast, loud, incomprehensible and at times terrifying—yet increasingly lit up by sudden shafts of human understanding too. Despite the hippie-style eastern philosophy, I read the whole thing in one sitting, totally engrossed. ( )

James Herbert has built an imposing reputation as a king of horror writing, perhaps second only to Stephen King. So, "Fluke" was a great disappointment which had great promise but couldn't reach any great heights.

The story of a dog who slowly realises he used to be a human man and heads off to find his family. He meets an intelligent rat and other various creatures as we hope for a big ending worthy of a horror legend, but doesn't happen. ( )

This book is very good. I often have conversations with Archimedes my cat, well I think I do. What a wonderful world we would live in if we all knew that we are connected. Imagine if everything was aware of everything that existed. Like an internet of things but, not virtual. REAL! Imagine a peaceful existence where nothing is hidden. No barriers or boundaries. No bigotry or judgement. Only love and transparency. Imagine knowing what the trees were thinking. The flora and fauna. Did our ancient ancestors have these abilities? Fluke is a great book by one of my top ten UK authors. James Herbert created a brilliant story of reincarnation and loves lost. Of the world through the eyes of a man reincarnated into a dogs body. Great book. ( )

Slightly unusual book by Herbert in that it is one of his very few non-horror novels. It is a sweet little book about a man who is reincarnated as a dog, and his journey to discover the truth about his past. It proves that Herbert is capable of branching out into different genres and it is one of my favourites from him. ( )