Dog Eats Dog-Iain Levison

Dog Eats Dog
Iain Levison
Bitter Lemon, Oct 2008, $14.95
ISBN 9781904738312

In New Jersey Phil Dixon thought the bank robbery would go over smooth so how he wonders why did it go so wrong. He flees the Garden State with a bullet wound and no cash heading towards Canada with aspirations of becoming a farmer. However, his wound is very severe so he is forced to stop in Tiburn, New Hampshire.

Phil peaks inside a window of a home to see a thirty something geek rolling on the floor with a teen who’s probably was still in high school. A desperate Phil forces the home owner history professor Elias White to provide him a haven or face exposure, censorship, and perhaps criminal charges. White agrees, but sees the hostage situation as a chance to enhance his floundering career. Meanwhile cynical FBI agent Denise Lupo volunteers to follow a nebulous clue to Dixon’s whereabouts in some small New England college town.

DOG EATS DOG is a humorous satirical crime thriller in which key traits of the three main characters are purposely exaggerated so that the audience can compare them when their odd triangle forms. Street and prison savvy Dixon pretends to be the hardened criminal to hide his shortcomings; White is a pompous professor who uses his superego to hide his shortcomings; Lupo is the burned out cop who uses cynicism to hide her shortcomings. Readers will appreciate when they merge in Tiburn.

Harriet Klausner