Dead Dogs

by Joe Murphy

Seán Galvin isn’t like the other children. While they play and laugh and keep on growing up, Seán doesn’t. Instead he does stuff to things. Things like cats and dogs. Bad stuff.

Seán has only one friend, the nameless narrator who tells their story. Their young lives revolve around sport and school. That is until Seán finally does something appalling and the boys have no choice but to tell someone. Someone older. Someone they should be able to trust. What they uncover is a secret far more awful than anything Seán is capable they witness a murder. Or do they? Because of their previous behavior, no- one believes them. They begin to unravel a rather sinister series of links between people whom they thought they could trust and the person who they saw committing the crime. Their little rural town becomes a place of cold skepticism and barely-hidden conspiracy. But is there really a conspiracy?

Accused of being ‘freaks’, they become more and more isolated, and even Seán starts doubting. But the novel’s increasingly unhinged narrator embarks on a mission to prove that they saw what they saw and his obsession will see their friendship tested to its limits and their lives changed forever.

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Grateful · Rating 2 out of 5]

My book club read it before I joined and as we read another of the authors books I borrowed this to read. There was a lot of talk over the last few months at book club about this book some people loved it others not so much and a lot about questioning the ending. It took me quite a long time to read it as I had a very wrong preconceived idea about it. So its been sitting on my bedside table in my to-read pile for weeks

That aside Its not really my kind of book. I will give anything a go and give it a fair shot. I sat down with this and ill be honest I wasn't really in the best of moods. I tried to wipe everything id heard from my mind and give it a fair go.

The relationship between the two boys is a very interesting one. I found the whole thing pretty believable. I had been told it was over descriptive too but I didn't find that. It drove me mad how just as something was about to happen it spun back to when the boys where little and something that happened in their past. I do understand why the author did that but I'm impatient so it bugged me. I did find it dragged a little. I thought the language was very enjoyable and added to the feel of the story. I didn't hate it but then I didn't particularly like it, it was just ok. Well written but not my thing wouldn't read again. Enjoyed 1798 this was disappointing for me in comparison.

[Sinead Molony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead Dogs by Joe Murphy is a must-read murder mystery set in a small Wexford town in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland. This novel is an angry condemnation of one generation's failure of another; father figures are ineffectual, abusive, murderous or corrupt, mothers (and women in general) are absent or dead – like the sickeningly soft dead dogs of the title. Murphy’s teenage narrator embodies the desperation and alienation of contemporary Ireland, but his cynical outlook keeps a wry smile on the reader’s face the whole way through. The only certainty in this apathetic, sadistic community is the friendship of the two main characters, which is essentially put on trial in this black comedy, with Murphy ultimately skewing all expectations and pronouncing the post-boom society absolutely, indubitably insane.

[Shane Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark yet compelling book about two teenage boys dealing with absent parents, mental health difficulties and small town corruption. It is written by a teacher and successfully gets into the minds of the two teenagers. It has a particularly Irish setting, and I'm not sure if talk of 'Dunnes tracksuits' and 'the Lidl roundabout' will travel well.

Strongly recommended.

[Helen Dunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I actually knew someone like this. Though not quite as far gone. So I guess I could relate very easily to it. I felt pain about him. It was a clean read. It was simple and fast and I really felt the better for having read it. I'm a fan of Joe Murphy. I'll make a point to read more of him!