- Mass Market Paperback: 522 pages
- Publisher: Bantam USA; Bantam pbk. e. edition (6 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553578774
- ISBN-13: 978-0553578775
- Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 2.9 x 17.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 913,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Night Dogs
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Every June 15th out at North Precinct, 'A' relief and graveyard shift started killing dogs. The police brass and local politicians only smiled if they were asked about it, shook their heads, and said it was just another one of those old myths about the precinct. The cops at North Precinct called them 'Night Dogs', feral dogs, wild and half-wild, who roamed the districts after dark. Their ancestors had been pets, beaten and abandoned by their owners to breed and give birth on the streets." That's the stately, carefully weighted language and metaphor that begins what James Crumley (The Last Good Kiss) calls "the best cop novel I have ever read." Of course, the "night dogs" are not only the roaming canines but also the people from the rougher neighbourhoods of Portland, Oregon--most particularly the police who work out of North Precinct. Seen through the eyes of a patrolman named Hanson, a Vietnam vet who thought he had seen the worst the world had to offer over there but is proved wrong every day, the story at first seems episodic, unconnected. But gradually all the threads of anger and pain come together to create an unforgettable picture of urban angst. Author Kent Anderson, who was a Vietnam vet and a Portland policeman in the 1970s, says that some readers might find his book disturbing or offensive: "The truth sometimes affects people that way." Then he adds a chilling footnote: "Things are much worse now than they were in 1975."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Former police officer Kent Anderson, author of the memorable Vietnam War novel Sympathy for the Devil, returns with a powerful new novel about a Vietnam-vet cop who still carries the war inside himself. Searing and brutally honest, Night Dogs plunges us into the free-fire zones of our cities, where the legendary thin blue line is breaking down.
The North Precinct of Portland, Oregon, is home to two kinds of cops: sergeants and lieutenants who've screwed up somewhere else, and patrolmen who thrive on the action on the Avenue. Officer Hanson is the second kind, a veteran who has traded his Bronze Star for a badge. War is what Hanson knows, and in this battle for Portland's meanest streets, he's fighting not so much for the law as for his own code of justice.
Hanson is a man who seems to fear nothing--except his own memories. And it is his past that could destroy him now: An enemy in the department is determined to bring him down by digging into his war record and resurrecting the darkest agonies of that nightmare time. And Hanson himself risks everything--his career, his equilibrium, even his life--when the only other survivor of his Special Forces unit comes back into his life. Doc Dawson is a drug dealer and a killer...but he's the one man Hanson can trust.
Night Dogs is an extraordinary work from a powerful and authentic voice in American fiction. Recoiling from the violence that Hanson deals with every day, the violence that is in Hanson, readers will also understand the compassion that drives him. A novel remarkable for its razor-sharp characterizations and dialogue, its freshness of observation, Night Dogs--and Hanson--will remain etched in the memory for a long time to come.
The North Precinct of Portland, Oregon, is home to two kinds of cops: sergeants and lieutenants who've screwed up somewhere else, and patrolmen who thrive on the action on the Avenue. Officer Hanson is the second kind, a veteran who has traded his Bronze Star for a badge. War is what Hanson knows, and in this battle for Portland's meanest streets, he's fighting not so much for the law as for his own code of justice.
Hanson is a man who seems to fear nothing--except his own memories. And it is his past that could destroy him now: An enemy in the department is determined to bring him down by digging into his war record and resurrecting the darkest agonies of that nightmare time. And Hanson himself risks everything--his career, his equilibrium, even his life--when the only other survivor of his Special Forces unit comes back into his life. Doc Dawson is a drug dealer and a killer...but he's the one man Hanson can trust.
Night Dogs is an extraordinary work from a powerful and authentic voice in American fiction. Recoiling from the violence that Hanson deals with every day, the violence that is in Hanson, readers will also understand the compassion that drives him. A novel remarkable for its razor-sharp characterizations and dialogue, its freshness of observation, Night Dogs--and Hanson--will remain etched in the memory for a long time to come.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Excellent!The best police procedual novel I've read in the last twenty years.Hanson,Viet-vet and now police patrolman,is,as you can imagine,cynical and careworn,working the nightshift in a sleazy district of Portland,Oregon.Change the locale to L.A. and you could say so far so predictable,but Anderson renders every character so real and believable that you can't second guess anything that's going to happen.Hanson is hard-bitten,weary and cynical as only a war veteran perhaps can be,and yet he has retained his humanity and is an entirely empathetic character.The plot is slight but enough to hang the characters on and in the end you feel like you have read a genuine slice of '70's streetlife,and given that Hanson is obviously modelled on the author's own experience,we probably have done.
Kent Anderson is easily as good as Craig Holden,Scott Phillips or Michael Connelly.This guy can write.The only problem is,he's only written 2 books.So,my message to Kent is - write another one soon,because if you write it I'll buy it.I've been waiting 6 years now,dammit!
Kent Anderson is easily as good as Craig Holden,Scott Phillips or Michael Connelly.This guy can write.The only problem is,he's only written 2 books.So,my message to Kent is - write another one soon,because if you write it I'll buy it.I've been waiting 6 years now,dammit!
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I think I prefer this to Anderson's first, only because the territory is, for me, slightly closer to home. Both books are very well written, however, using a kind of collage, layer on layer approach to building up a plotline, which if you think about it, is a bit like real life.
A guy called Hanson is the hero of both, and has a penchant for embracing reality as it comes, which isn't a very comfortable way to live.
This is remeniscent of 'The Wire', but just about predates it.
Vietnam underscores Hanson's experience of life as a street cop, and this book is a record of his attempts to reconcile his own experience with the demands of the local PD and the hopes and wishes of his friends (and dog).
For my money, this is right down the line.
A guy called Hanson is the hero of both, and has a penchant for embracing reality as it comes, which isn't a very comfortable way to live.
This is remeniscent of 'The Wire', but just about predates it.
Vietnam underscores Hanson's experience of life as a street cop, and this book is a record of his attempts to reconcile his own experience with the demands of the local PD and the hopes and wishes of his friends (and dog).
For my money, this is right down the line.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
45 reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Not your typical cop story...
28 May 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Although you can find NIGHT DOGS in the suspense/thriller section at your neighborhood bookstore, Kent Anderson's story of the stark reality of a Portland cop's beat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War is much more than your everyday thriller. Officer Hanson is a character you will not soon forget. A Vietnam veteran haunted by his military experience, Hanson finds purpose in his job as a cop in the North Precinct, a proud but poor Portland neighborhood, where the police are more often at odds with the residents than protecting them.
But this is not your typical cop-story or your run of the mill thriller. The language is brutal, the characters peculiar, the overall tone is murky, dark. This book is not for the timid. Hanson's motivations are disturbing, and the whole story has an abrasiveness to it that is not often found in suspense novels, where that final confrontation between good and evil is what keeps you turning the pages. The reader of NIGHT DOGS is not necessarily motivated by that imminent conflict with the antagonist, but the nagging wonder of whether or not Hanson will ultimately destroy himself. The showdown between good and evil is nullified because the line between the two has been erased and they have melded into one gruesome blur.
As an exclusive reader of thriller novels, this is the first that I have felt strongly enough about to write a review. The characters, not just Hanson but his supporting cast as well, will likely stick in your memory for some time. I have read a half dozen novels since finishing NIGHT DOGS, but Anderson's images remain as strong as ever. This is an important book. I recommend it highly to readers of all genres.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Real life in Portland, 1975
5 Dec 1999
Format:Hardcover
I worked with Kent Anderson in North Precinct in 1975. Although the book is fiction, many of the stories have a ring of truth and the gut feelings he describes so well are real. He humanizes the police and the people on the street, far from a "Just the facts, Ma'm" kind of novel. Cops can cry, cops can be afraid and Anderson shows what it was like. Our police union newspaper editor gave it a bad review, saying it was too racist. But then again, but he never worked anything other than middle class white neighborhoods. I guess you had to be there. Read the book and you will be.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The Best Cop Novel Since Wambaughs Choirboys
28 Mar 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Night Dogs caught me totally by surprise. I bought the book not knowing what to expect, and after I read the first 3 pages I knew I had found something unique. The book is not a dramatic account of the search for a serial killer or a drug lord, but instead gives an episodic glimpse into the life of a young cop who is still trying to make sense of his experiences in Vietnam as a Green Beret. The most influential people in my life have been vietnam vets, and the Hanson character has helped me understand what the young men of that generation who served went through. Anyone interested in police work or the Vietnam war should read this book and then read Sympathy For The Devil to better understand where the sometimes cruel Officer Hanson character is coming from. This is a fantastic book, I hope Mr. Anderson is getting the recognition he deserves.
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