Manstopper (Onyx) [Paperback]

Douglas Borton (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (September 6, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451400976
• ISBN-13: 978-0451400970
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,566,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Above average "creature"novel, May 18, 2002

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manstopper (Onyx) (Paperback)

The 1970's gave us a crop of paperback originals,from both sides of the Atlantic,in which one animal or another became a threat to the world--dogs,cats,rats,crabs,ants and even slugs--and so on "ad infinitum"(or should that be "ad nauseuem",so bad were the majority of them)
Borton in this, his 1988 debut novel,revived the trend.The menace consists of 4 highly trained attack dogs,malevolent brutes the lot of them,who escape from the van transporting them,and wreak havoc as thay prey on residents in a small rural community."Prey"is the operative word as they develop a taste for human flesh.Arrayed against them are the animal's trainer,and the local lawman and the novel deals with the attempt to eradicate the thrreat posed by the slavering beasts

The real strength of the book is not the plot which is functional and routine,but the characterization .The trainer,while looking like a caricature thug of the dangerous dog owning type(muscles/shaven head etc)is a sensitive and intelligent man and a concentration camp survivor.The sanimal's victims are sketched in neatly and unobtrusively and are never simply victims there to make up the numbers.As an instance I woukld cite the first victim ,the van driver,a college drop out whose hopes and aspirations are rendered economically and in a way that makes us care when he gets chomped up by the dogs

Good,solid work;many worse have escaped the ghetto of the paperback original to the leafy suburbs of hardback immortality
Good economical writing that highlights Borton's past as a movie scriptwriter

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate killer dogs on the loose!!, April 15, 2002

By 

G. Van Der Bent "Gerb" (Katwijk, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manstopper (Onyx) (Paperback)

Wow!!
That's the perfect word to describe this book.

From title to end 'Manstopper' is one powerhouse read. As you may have guessed (you will after seeing the cover) this book is about a couple of killer dogs (so called Manstoppers) who escape after a lunatic hijacks the truck that carriers them. The dogs end up in a small town and start ripping apart everyone (and everything) that gets in their way. Their owner is soon on their trail, aided by a few of the (surviving) locals. In an interesting subplot we also find out what happens to the hijacker/ psycho who is one nasty dude (in the best horror/ Richard Laymon tradition).

I've read some of Douglas Borton's other works, but none of them get's even close to 'Manstopper'. It's his masterpiece! I highly recommend this book, if only for the amazing setpieces in which his killerdogs feature. For example; one has them chasing a guy out of a tree, another has them following a tv newswoman even as she thinks she can loose them going into the sea!
Also worth mentioning is Borton's excellent characterization. For example, take the owner of the dogs. He isn't anything at all like the ruthless guy you may think a breeder of killer dogs is!

I recently found out that these days Borton writes thrillers/ suspense novels using a pseudonym. I think his strength lies indeed with these genres. 'Manstopper' is horror, but not of the supernatural kind (like Borton's lesser books 'Dreamhouse' and 'Deathsong'). I think you can maybe (and very carefully) describe this as a 'Jaws' on land.
Once again, highly recommended. Don't let the fact that it's out of print stop you. TRACK IT DOWN...

....or maybe else the dogs will track YOU down!

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good, November 22, 1999

By 

"ghidzilla" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manstopper (Onyx) (Paperback)

Hey, you can't go wrong here. Mr. Borton takes a small pack of dogs and uses them to tell a mesmerizing, gruesome, entertaining story that puts most books/movies like this to shame. My only regret was that it was a tad too short. Highly recommended.