Lie Down With Dogs [Paperback]

Jan Gleiter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

Businessman Robert Cooper and young, sarcastic Lisa Jacobi are thrown together in a struggle to save four-year-old Luke McCain from a band of mysterious pursuers, and when they uncover evidence of a murderous conspiracy, they stir long-repressed emotions. Reprint. PW. K.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its (literally) running start and pleasing cast, this debut, winner of the publisher's 1995 Malice Domestic contest for best first mystery, may charm readers into overlooking rough spots in its puzzle. Chicago business executive Robert Cooper is trudging in the northern woods when young Luke McCain charges toward him, saying that his friend Lisa Jacobi dropped him out of her cabin window and told him to run away from the men breaking in. Making her own escape and catching up, Lisa explains that Luke's father, Carl, left the boy in her care six weeks earlier. Cooper invites the pair to stay with him in Chicago. Increasingly pleased with his live-in company, he opposes Lisa's scheme to track down Carl, reminding her that people are still hunting for her. The situation grows grimmer when an old college acquaintance of Carl and Lisa's is found shot in the head. But not to worry: in this accomplished cozy, cleverness triumphs over evil and the baddies are rendered absurd as they bite the dust.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Set in Chicago and environs, this gripping debut--winner of St. Martin's Best First Malice Domestic Mystery Novel Contest-- starts quietly, with not very successful actor/would-be playwright Carl McCain doing a favor for his old college buddy Gerry Martelli, now a policeman. Carl, widowed father of precocious four-year-old Luke, agrees to hold a package containing a small sculpture for his friend, and soon after finds his son's life threatened. Desperate, he brings Luke for safekeeping to the deep woods cabin where his onetime college lover, Lisa Jacobi, lives with guard-dog Sirius. In a plot twist the author manages to make believable, business executive Robert Cooper runs out of gas in that desolate area late at night just as Lisa and Luke are fleeing from Gerry's bad-guy partners. Cooper and Lisa team up to protect the boy and, working from Cooper's house in Chicago, try to figure out how Carl (now vanished) got himself into this mess and what's behind it all. Sensitive, independent Lisa finds the divorced Cooper imperious and cold, but their shared mission and sense of being under siege (intensified when Gerry Martelli is found shot to death) changes those feelings, even as their hunter gradually becomes their quarry. A literate, straightforward prose style enhances a story packed with vibrant characters, unhackneyed dialogue, and menacing tension every step of the way. Fans of the genre will hope to hear more from this talented author. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Mass Market Paper (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312961758
• ISBN-13: 978-0312961756
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,997,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite mystery ever and not just because Jan's my mom., November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lie Down With Dogs (Paperback)

Yes, yes, Jan Gleiter is my mother, but I can honestly say that that fact in no way influences my opinion of the book. I absolutely loved "Lie Down With Dogs." I've read it only twice because after I finished reading it the second time, she got "A House by the Side of the Road" published and I read that twice and now I'm in college and my professors kind of like me to read things that are directly applicable to their classes. I think the reason that this book is my favorite instead of "A House by the Side of the Road" is just because I read this one first. I love "A House by the Side of the Road", too. (Check out my review for that one.) "Lie Down with Dogs" kept me reading from page one. I was in eighth grade when my mom found out it was going to be published. I convinced my mom to let me read a copy of the manuscript which she had in a binder. I started reading it one night and was so involved in it that I had to carry that big, bulky binder to school with me the next day so I could finish reading it on the bus ride and during lunch. The characters are so interesting and likeable and the plot is amazingly smooth and suspenseful. It is a book that can be enjoyed by all ages. My grandparents loved it every bit as much as I did, maybe even more. I highly recommend this mystery. My only suggestion is that you don't start reading it the night before an important meeting, because you won't be able to put it down and go to sleep; you will want to finish it right away! If you would like to talk about the book or my mom, feel free to e-mail me.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seneca was wrong., July 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lie Down With Dogs (Paperback)

This is another book review by Wolfie and Kansas, the boonie dogs from Toto, Guam. The title of Jan Gleiter's "Lie Down With Dogs" comes from a quotation from the Roman philosopher Senecus, which is reprinted at the start of the novel: "Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas." Grrr . . . . No sane flea would ever abandon one of our furry hides in favor of some relatively hairless noncanine animal of primate derivation.

From this inauspicious beginning, "Lie Down With Dogs" improves rather quickly. These days, one would expect a book in the mystery/thriller genre entitled "Lie Down With Dogs" to include a heavy dose of bestiality. Instead, the canine character, Sirius, is treated throughout with proper respect, although he fades too much into the background for several chapters. This book has no sex, drugs, profanity, severed body parts, or Hannibal Lecter wannabes. Instead it has a plot that moves along quite nicely, and a couple lead human characters who grow on the reader more quickly than they grow on each other. "Lie Down With Dogs" is a book that adults will enjoy but that can also be shared with human puppies in the "young adult" age range

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars witty, suspenseful, characters to care about, good food!, June 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Lie Down With Dogs (Paperback)

This is the best mystery novel I read in 1996, and I read a lot of them because I'm always looking for a new author (and seldom finding one who can write a coherent English sentence and whose characters aren't a complete waste of time). Do you find yourself throwing mystery novels at the wall and shouting "Give me a BREAK"? If so, try "Lie Down with Dogs." You'll love it, and you won't get up with fleas