Red Dog

📖 The Scoop

With “vivid scenery and realistic dialogue” this rural crime noir novel “evocatively shows how a regional mystery can incisively explore an area.” —Washington Post

One hot summer day, in his home in the southern Illinois coal country known as Little Egypt—a Midwest Gothic wonderland of barren vistas, sinister hollows, petty corruption, and deeply strange characters—the self-appointed “redneck detective” known as Slim gets a visit from a shady-looking pair looking to hire him to find a missing dog. As a miner with a reputation for “bloodhounding”—tracking down missing persons the police can’t find or won’t—Slim is accustomed to looking for people, not pets. On the other hand, he needs the cash to fix his air conditioner. But when he pulls the thread that leads to the red-haired purebred pitbull—and then the dognapper is discovered with his head blown off—Slim finds himself plunged into a world of underground dogfights and white supremacists . . . all because he just wanted to get cool.

“Hats off to a devilishly clever plot. A nice mix of hard-boiled action and Holmes homage.” —Booklist

“A canny balance of weirdness, violence, compassion for animals and black humor.” —The Seattle Times

“As funny as it is intense.” —Steve Huff, author of Don’t Go to Jail!: Saul Goodman’s Guide to Keeping the Cuffs Off

“A seamlessly plotted mystery with a likable hero...Tim Cockey and Robert Crais fans who crave laugh-out-loud dialog will add this title to their to-read lists.” —Library Journal

“Violent country noir at its funniest—as if Tim Dorsey wandered out of Florida into Donald Ray Pollock’s white trash Knockemstiff, Ohio.” —Shelf Awareness

Genre: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Private Investigators (fancy, right?)