The Big Seven was published by Grove Press in 2015. Brown Dog — Harrison’s most popular character, introduced as a novella protagonist in 1990 — returns for a novel-length adventure. B.D. (as he is known) is living on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, raising his stepdaughter Berry, and trying to stay out of trouble. The “big seven” are the seven deadly sins, each embodied by a member of the Ames family — violent criminals who live nearby and whose activities entangle B.D. in escalating absurdity.
Brown Dog is Harrison’s great comic creation: a man of enormous appetites (food, drink, women, fishing) and equally enormous good nature, perpetually in trouble but rarely malicious, intelligent in practical matters but hopeless in institutional ones. He lives entirely in the present, responds to the world with his body rather than his mind, and navigates difficulty through improvisation and charm rather than planning.
The novel is Harrison’s funniest sustained work: the situations B.D. finds himself in (hiding from the Ames family, managing Berry’s needs, dealing with a female detective who may or may not be interested in him) generate comedy through the collision between B.D.’s fundamental decency and the world’s determination to complicate his life.
Collecting The Big Seven
First edition (Grove Press, New York, 2015): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$35
- Signed: $30–$60
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation. Late Harrison.
Sunderson’s Retirement
The Big Seven (2015) is a late detective-comedy featuring Harrison’s retired detective Sunderson, who moves to a cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula only to find himself investigating a family of criminals next door — the Ameses, who embody the seven deadly sins. The novel is loose, digressive, and funny in Harrison’s characteristic manner — more interested in food, landscape, and Sunderson’s libido than in crime-solving. It represents Harrison in full late-career mode: relaxed, self-amused, and unconcerned with critical opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Harrison’s detective fiction like? Highly unconventional — Sunderson is a bumbling, food-obsessed retiree rather than a competent investigator. The “mysteries” are vehicles for Harrison’s observations about appetite, aging, and the Michigan landscape.