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Mad Dogs [Hardcover]

Brian Hodge (Author), Jill Bauman (Painter)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)


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Book Description

October 31, 2007
From Brian Hodge, the author of the highly acclaimed Wild Horses, comes his long-awaited second crime novel, which once again finds him careening at whiplash speeds between black humor and the pounding heart of darkness.

Actor Jamey Sheppard may not be starving, but he's definitely struggling. His career has been one piddling role after another with names like Radical Dude #3. Still, as he's road-tripping from Los Angeles to Arizona to reunite with his fiancée for their wedding, the future looks brighter than gold.

Until a liquid lunch deputy turns the best day in his life into the worst.

But Jamey's no criminal. He's only played one on TV.

From the moment he's mistaken for Duncan MacGregor, the real-life renegade he's just portrayed in a re-enactment segment on American Fugitives, Jamey's life can never be the same. And so begins his sun-scorched odyssey through overnight media saturation celebrity and the national fascination with outlaws.

In his hideaway, Duncan MacGregor is watching, too. And he just has to meet the guy who relived his own worst moment in front of a nationwide audience.

Within days, in a twist that even American Fugitives couldn't have seen coming, their fates are intertwined, as they ricochet down a road filled with the world's dumbest bounty hunters, Hollywood deal-makers and wannabes, cops on both sides of the law, a metal-plated ex-con with a prehistoric outlook on life, an impromptu right-wing death squad, a merciless Jay Leno, and the most dangerous people of all when it comes to grudges and vengeance:

Family.

Staying on the run could be the best career move Jamey's ever made … if he can just live long enough to sign on the dotted line.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Hodge's darkly comic second crime novel (after 1999's Wild Horses), smalltime actor Jamey Sheppard, who's driving from California to Arizona to get married, makes a fateful pit stop at a highway "Gulp 'n' Go," where a drunken deputy mistakes him for Duncan MacGregor, the real-life crook Sheppard played on TV's American Fugitives. After the deputy accidentally shoots himself dead in a pitiful effort to arrest Sheppard, our decent, bewildered hero goes on the lam. Trying to make sense of his senseless circumstances, Sheppard suffers numerous travails, including capture by a crazy family out for reward money. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, Sheppard's malevolent younger sister plots to kill him so she can own total film rights to his ongoing story, which has attracted national attention. Acidic commentary on "reality crime" helps offset weak motivation (the hatred Sheppard and his sister feel for each other isn't sufficiently explained) and a convoluted resolution. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Like any actor, Jamey Sheppard wants to be famous. When he's mistaken for Duncan MacGregor, an on-the-lam criminal, Jamey gets what he wanted, but not quite the way he wanted. On the run from the law (he's the prime suspect in a cop's death), from Duncan (who wants to meet this guy who's getting his press), and even from the one cop in the country who's actually on his side, Jamey has to clear his own name while keeping himself out of his pursuers' clutches. This big, fast-paced thriller keeps Jamey and the reader on their toes from beginning to end. The book never quite goes where we think it's going to go, and by the time we figure out what Hodge is up to, we're completely hooked. Horror fans know Hodge's dark fiction--Lies & Ugliness (2002) and World of Hurt (2006)--but he's a new name to most crime-fiction readers. That deserves to change. This one is great fun. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 578 pages
  • Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications; 1st edition (October 31, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1587671492
  • ISBN-13: 978-1587671494
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,785,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars One Hell of a Ride, November 22, 2007
This review is from: Mad Dogs (Hardcover)
I've been a Hodge fan for a lot of years, and I was so excited to finally get a new novel by this talented and criminally overlooked author. Hodge started out writing very dark horror novels, but with Wild Horses he proved into the crime genre, proving he could handle it equally as well, not to mention loads of humor. I devoured his newest, Mad Dogs, while also trying to stretch it out so I could savor every word. The story is a masterful satire that never gets too heavy-handed and perfectly balances humor with more serious moments. Over the course of the narrative, I really fell in love with the characters and became invested in their fates. The climax of the novel was incredibly tense and gripping, and I really liked the ending. I will say that the humor of the earlier parts of the novel kind of disappears in the last third, and that kind of shift in tone can be jarring for some readers. Overall, another winner by Hodge, and when I finished I felt somewhat sad because who knows when I'll get my next Hodge fix. This is a writer who deserves to be a household name.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Brian Hodge Layers Crime Novel with Philosophy (if you look for it), November 11, 2008
By 
W. D. Gagliani (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mad Dogs (Hardcover)
When Jamey Sheppard pulls into a remote Stop-n-Gulp, he has no idea the drive to his imminent wedding is about to go terribly wrong. Jamey's last acting job was portraying wanted fugitive Duncan MacGregor for a TV re-enactment on one of those crime shows. But the boozed-up deputy who mistakes Jamey for the real MacGregor doesn't want his autograph -- he wants a bust. While frisking Jamey, a freak accident occurs and the cop shoots himself dead. Almost before he knows it, Jamey's on the run for real, wanted for the deputy's murder. The whole world's watching and turning Jamey into a star, if he can only survive. For unfortunately, it's not just the police who are on his trail, but also a dysfunctional family of criminal opportunists, a revenge-driven friend of the dead cop, the real sword-wielding outlaw Duncan (who wants to meet his alter ego), and some rather incompetent but motivated hitmen sent by ... but why spoil it for you? There's more to this zany novel than its surface action. It's a serio-comic road caper that screams nihilistic existentialism from every page while poking society for its cult of news and infotainment (and the blurred lines between them), short attention spans, and greed culture. Hodge's work (World of Hurt, Wild Horses, The Darker Saints) is always deeper than it seems, here recalling Bradley Denton's Laughin' Boy when examining how television and the media tend to shape our realities.

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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible, June 4, 2008
This review is from: Mad Dogs (Hardcover)
I really enjoyed the 1st novel. This one I could have gone without. If you're a die-hard Brian Hodge Fan, then you'll probably like the book. I hope this was just an off-day for the author.
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