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The China Dogs    by Sam Masters Amazon.com order for
China Dogs
by Sam Masters
Order:  USA  Can
HarperCollins, 2014 (2014)
Softcover, e-Book
* *   Reviewed by Bob Walch

Reputedly dogs are our best friends (cat lovers may disagree) but Sam Masters seems to think otherwise. In this thriller that a PR flack has dubbed 'Cujo meets The Manchurian Candidate', out of control dogs create a reign of terror that has international repercussions.

A series of mysterious dog attacks have the Miami police scratching their heads. Special Ops Lieutenant 'Ghost' Walton is assigned the task of figuring out what ails the misbehaving, out of control canines. Is it the weather or some strange disease? Who knows, but the trail will lead to Asia where a sinister plot has been hatched to unsettle Western powers.

This novel is a quick read thanks to very short chapters that jump all over the place from one setting to another. Masters is assisted by a comely photojournalist, Zoe Speed, and this will add a little romance to the plot.

Dog lovers and those who can't stomach graphic violence should be forewarned that there are some pretty nasty dog versus man encounters here, and some readers have already admitted that they abandoned the book because of these scenes.

Although I liked the novel's breakneck pace, I found some scenes difficult to stomach so I skipped over them. You'll have to decide for yourself how much of this rather far-fetched storyline you can handle.

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