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THE CHINA DOGS
by Sam Masters
William Morrow, August 2014
468 pages
$11.99
ISBN: 0062343130


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

According to his publishers, Sam Masters is a pseudonym of an author who has written seven books, including a bestseller that has sold in more than thirty countries. THE CHINA DOGS is the first novel he's written as Masters, though as such he seems to have produced several dog training manuals. The book starts with a dog attack in Miami. But then that one attack turns into a series of attacks, and the police link those attacks to an international conspiracy meant to topple the United States - a conspiracy that could change the face of the world. It's a great book with fascinating characters and a compelling global story.

The action builds slowly, with varying perspectives and chapters told from different places around the world. The mounting tension and the technique creates a genuine level of suspense that made the book a true page-turner. This, despite the author's habit of providing too many minor details, like the ages of every character, the menus of the meals they ate and the wines they drank. These were interesting footnotes and useful to bring out a character but they sometimes get in the way of the narrative.

And the book does require a certain degree of suspension of disbelief. The reader needs to buy into the idea that a foreign superpower might invest in technology that would train dogs to be sleeper agents that would attack on command. It's not completely believable but then again someone could say that dog attacks weren't all that scary until CUJO. And no one thought a great white shark would eat people off the coast of New England until JAWS. So, this just pushes the animal menace idea just a bit further. I, for one, didn't mind.

The back cover of the book says the story is a cross between CUJO and THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and I can't say it any better myself. It also has well-crafted characters that you want to get to know better combined with gripping suspense. As I said earlier, a true pager turner. Not only am I excited to see what else Sam Masters might bring us one day, but I want to go read everything else written by this author under all his other pseudonyms. He might have just gained a fan for life.

§ Paris Abell is blogger and writer who works as a lawyer in New York City.

Reviewed by Paris Abell, August 2014

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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