From Brian Hodge, the author of the highly acclaimed Wild Horses, comes his long-awaited second crime novel, which once again finds him careening at whiplash speeds between black humor and the pounding heart of darkness.

The Story…

Actor Jamey Sheppard may not be starving, but he’s definitely struggling. His career has been one piddling role after another with names like Radical Dude #3. Still, as he’s road-tripping from Los Angeles to Arizona to reunite with his fiancée for their wedding, the future looks brighter than gold.

Until a liquid lunch deputy turns the best day in his life into the worst.

But Jamey’s no criminal. He’s only played one on TV.

From the moment he’s mistaken for Duncan MacGregor, the real-life renegade he’s just portrayed in a re-enactment segment on American Fugitives, Jamey’s life can never be the same. And so begins his sun-scorched odyssey through overnight media saturation celebrity and the national fascination with outlaws.

In his hideaway, Duncan — a thief who fancies himself an Old World highwayman — is watching, too. And he just has to meet the guy who relived his own worst moment in front of a nationwide audience.

Within days, in a twist that even American Fugitives couldn’t have seen coming, their fates are intertwined, as they ricochet down a road filled with the world’s dumbest bounty hunters, Hollywood deal-makers and wannabes, cops on both sides of the law, a metal-plated ex-con with a prehistoric outlook on life, an impromptu right-wing death squad, a merciless Jay Leno, and the most dangerous people of all when it comes to grudges and vengeance:

Family.

Staying on the run could be the best career move Jamey’s ever made … if he can just live long enough to sign on the dotted line.

Where To Buy

Available at Amazon and Cemetery Dance Publications

More Dog Breath

Read that all-important first chapter.

For spoiler-free background and insights, check out the Mad Dogs Dogpile Interview, with questions from Tom Piccirilli, Brian Keene, and Paul Legerski.

Pimp My Dogs!

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Just drag the banner of your choice off this page and onto your desktop, along with my sincere appreciation, and install where appropriate. Overachievers who link to one of the retail locations above will earn double-secret extra-sincere appreciation.

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Praise For Mad Dogs

“This big, fast-paced thriller keeps Jamey and the reader on their toes from beginning to end. The book never quite goes where we think it's going to go, and by the time we figure out what Hodge is up to, we're completely hooked. Horror fans know Hodge's dark fiction … but he's a new name to most crime-fiction readers. That deserves to change.”
— Booklist

“Hodge takes his time to tell his story, never once rushing to quick solutions, but also never letting the plot hit a lull, forever mixing up the action. As the novel goes along, Hodge ties up the loose ends with great aplomb, all the while amping up the thriller aspect. Mad Dogs is like a family trip — if your family were the Mansons — with an ending that delivers in all aspects, without taking the easy way out.”
— Read the full review by Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm.com

“Hodge takes the reader on a roller coaster ride, navigating the twists and turns through both Jamey’s eyes and the enriched point of view of the supporting characters. The seamless transitions captivate the reader and keep the story moving forward at a steady pace.”
— Read the full review by Martel Sardina at Dark Scribe Magazine

“A whirlwind crime novel that takes a sort of backwards approach to most books of its type … Brian Hodge’s characters feel real, gritty, and comfortable. Even when he writes about people you probably don’t really want to meet, or those involved in things they should not be involved in, he brings out their humanity and makes it real in a way that draws you in and makes you a part of it all.”
— Read the full review by David Niall Wilson at Macabre Ink

Praise For Earlier Crime Novel Wild Horses

“A soulful crime drama that blends the comic and the macabre … His well-drawn criminals make a memorable batch of bottom-feeders.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Hodge draws characters with the texture of Daumier, and the imagination of LeFanu.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“A first-class crime thriller, full of suspense, dark humor, and richly comic characters.”
— Denver Post

“I have not enjoyed reading a novel more this year … Hodge has a deft, sure grasp of that old Shakespearean dramatic device of utilizing comedy to drive home horror, and using horror to galvanize sometimes painful, but always unrestrained, laughter.”
— Ed Bryant in Locus