The Guardian (Book Review)

The book The Guardian is based in a small town, Swansboro, North Carolina. The main character, Julie, is a windowed woman to her late husband, Jim. He died about four years ago from a brain tumor after only a few short years of their marriage. After Jim died, she relied on the people she knew around her for support. One of those people happened to be Jim's best friend growing up, Mike. On the Christmas Eve after Mike's death, Julie gets a knock at the door late at night. Much to her surprise, at the door, their is a young boy with a box and as he explains the situation to Julie, her jaw just drops. The boy says his father had a request from Jim before he died to deliver this gift on Christmas Eve to keep Julie company the rest of her life. Any guesses? What Julie received from Jim was this poor little Great Dane dog, which in the beginning Julie that to be a pitiful excuse for a dog. However, she took it in and named it Singer after all the crying and singing he did in his new home that night.
Of course, as it goes, Julie gets a note with Singer. It is hand written from Jim, and at the end it says "Find someone who will make you happy. Be happy again." Then we skip to four years later, Singer a full grown dog and this is

One day Julie decides to take Singer for a walk since it has been so long since she's done that. She hasn't recently because of her fear of seeing Richard alone. She is in the woods and she sees a Realtor their and she talks to her, and then the Realtor, Edna, introduces her client, who not so surprisingly, is Richard. Edna goes to her car quick while Julie and Richard have a brief conversation, in which Richard says he loves her. She starts to run to her car and her and Singer just leave. She gets the police involved and more and more strange things happen- one in particular when she finds the locket on top of a pile of magazines on her desk when it hadn't been their in the first place. Also, the chain is shorter, like Richard said he would get her. This is where the drama really begins. The police tell Julie that her best bet is to leave and go in a few circles to make sure no one is following her and Mike and they go to a friend's beach house is search of some peace. They are there for a few days without Richard knowing, but soon enough an Officer from Swansboro decides to come down and check on them, and Richard isn't far behind. Between the time Julie had left and the time Richard followed Officer Gandy down to the beach, Richard had slaughtered and raped one of Julie's coworkers, Andrea. He had left her on the side of the road in a coma, which she later came out of. So this now left Julie, Mike, and Singer on Richard's list. When Julie left Singer out to go to the bathroom, Richard laid hamburger meat out with rat poison in it so Singer wouldn't be able to protect Julie. He then hid in the house and knocked Officer Gandy unconscience with a tire iron, and got into a fight with Mike and shot him. Mike wasn't dead, but he was now not able to fight for Julie, who was outside sitting by the wh