When Dogs Could Talk Review

“Need you at Babilani, Charlie—know the place?”

Harris came to regret answering the Chief Inspector’s call, but that cold January evening it appeared to be just another story.

Charlie Harris and CI Winston Quist, with little hope and less conviction, put their natural suspicion and cynicism aside in an attempt to stop the ruin of their country.

What followed from this decision—a journey through economic collapse, crime, espionage, counter-intelligence, insurrection, civil war, accident, coincidence, psychosis, spree killing, mass murder, and, perhaps, an archetypal genocide.

When Dogs Could Talk follows Charlie Harris, and those that cross his path, through a year in the life of a city as it seemed to be preparing itself for a season in hell.

Can this be stopped? More importantly, could the collapse be understood—and in the understanding halt what appeared inevitable?

Through a complex cast of characters—political leaders, criminals, caitiffs, radical lesbians, psychopaths, reporters, lovers, hookers, strippers, homophobes, families, pimps, revolutionaries, demagogues, children, the homeless, street gangs, detectives, doctors, thugs, constables, navvies, nurses, convicts, spies, murderers, protean abortionists, errant philosophers, nihilists, terrorists, double-agents, and the vast, nameless morass of a stunned and feckless humanity—When Dogs Could Talk carries the reader through a page turning psychological thriller which is part political gang rape, part philosophical barbarism, and part post-modern morality play.

When Dogs Could Talk is less concerned with the ethos of an act than it is with why individuals choose one sensibility rather than another. From this follows all of the action, reaction, and resolution of the various characters in this epic study of the ordinary and extraordinary caught up in a contemporary, but very old, wave of historical violence and social collapse.

Through the extremities of the year one question haunts—

Is revolution the art of political plagiarism?

My Review:

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

I felt conflicted about this book. For while I enjoyed the story, there were other aspects that I was not a big fan of. For example, the writing style took a lot of getting used to. Big words, some so obscure I needed to consult a dictionary, and just the writing style in general seemed to be something one would expect to find inside an instruction manual or textbook, not a fun read. The writing style did diminish my reading, as I was left trying to decipher that along with the plot, but once I got used to it, I started enjoying the book.

The plot was intriguing, and I was drawn in to the story. It's scary to think about how the events in the book aren't some dystopian, sci-fi, hundred-year-from-now events, but something that could happen in our world today. It was hard to read at time, hence while I enjoyed it, I was still conflicted.

All in all though, I did enjoy the book, and if you can get over the writing style (check the preview on Amazon for an example), and if you enjoy political thrillers, then this is a good read for you.


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