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Coydog
Meet Moses Kincaid, a Native American bounty hunter who served in the US Army in Desert Storm and Haiti. Now, to pay the bills, he’s taken to tracking down wanted criminals in and around Kansas City.
Unaware he has no authority after chasing a man-on-the-run across state lines, Moses scours the Oklahoma map for a guy who ran down two members of the Filthy 13 motorcycle gang and didn’t look back.
With news of the Oklahoma City bombing still unfolding on the nightly news, locals don't kindly look upon new faces. As the Anadarko County Sheriff's Department, town riffraff, and blood relatives of the bounty prove to be a series of dead ends, a waitress offers Moses a helping hand—and a chance at something more. Though love comes and goes quickly as this manhunt comes to a head.
After a slip that costs another man his life, Moses finds himself on the wrong side of the gavel. His only choice is to go undercover at Big Mac, the notorious state prison, to find the source of a drug turning violent criminals into rodeo clowns—if he doesn’t wind up sharing their fate.
Unaware he has no authority after chasing a man-on-the-run across state lines, Moses scours the Oklahoma map for a guy who ran down two members of the Filthy 13 motorcycle gang and didn’t look back.
With news of the Oklahoma City bombing still unfolding on the nightly news, locals don't kindly look upon new faces. As the Anadarko County Sheriff's Department, town riffraff, and blood relatives of the bounty prove to be a series of dead ends, a waitress offers Moses a helping hand—and a chance at something more. Though love comes and goes quickly as this manhunt comes to a head.
After a slip that costs another man his life, Moses finds himself on the wrong side of the gavel. His only choice is to go undercover at Big Mac, the notorious state prison, to find the source of a drug turning violent criminals into rodeo clowns—if he doesn’t wind up sharing their fate.
256 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2025
About the author
David Tromblay
9 books27 followersDavid Tromblay served in both the Army and the Navy before earning an MFA in Creative Writing. His memoir "As You Were" was named one of the best Nonfiction books of 2021 by Kirkus Reviews. He now writes and lives in rural eastern Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 14, 2026
A native-American bounty hunter follows a skip to Oklahoma, where he gets into one violent death-defying situation after another. The writing is gritty and propulsive, but the book suffers from a lack of cohesion, with no through plot. It seemed more like a series of short stories. Each one believable on its own, but rather preposterous as a whole.
November 22, 2025
Gritty. Dark. A little funny. I found myself confused by the timeline of the story. Either I misunderstood, or Moe lives at warp speed. I'm still not sure. And that took me out of the story a bit. Having said that, I think this could make a great adaptation for streaming.
July 31, 2026
How to review Coydog? There's the version of the book put forward by Dzanc Books and then there is the version I actually read. And though the two versions share a name, they could not be more different.
The Coydog described both here on Goodreads and on Dzanc Books's website is a western in the neo-noir vein, gritty with hints of absurdism (how else to interpret the line "the source of a drug turning violent criminals into rodeo clowns"?) Not usually my cup of tea, but I was intrigued by the premise of a bounty hunter as our main character, since that's a profession that lives both inside and outside the law enforcement realm. I was also intrigued by how the shadow of the Oklahoma City bombing was implied to be cast across the plot, given Moses's own Desert Storm past.
However, the Coydog I read ended up being, well, not that. To be fair, the Coydog I did read was full of both surrealism and absurdism! But that's mostly because the abrupt jumps from chapter to chapter and stream of consciousness narration made it impossible to understand what was happening. The aforementioned Oklahoma City bombing casts no shadow across the plot, coming up once in a single sentence, and as for plot, there isn't really one. Things happen, Moe ruminates (sometimes about what happens but often times not), then something else happens. Note that I say Moe ruminates, not reacts. For all that happens in the span of the 227 pages I made it through, Moe has a complete absence of reaction to anything. I reached my stopping point when, in the past of two chapters, Moe watches a tiger eat someone, apprehends a (dwarf) fugitive-turned-wrestler, and helps blow up a gas station full of bikers. And his reaction to all of this?
As you may have guessed, there isn't one.
I'm giving this three stars because I actually really liked spending time with Moe. And the writing, while at times a little too "shitty gritty" for my taste, is snappy (although the various scenes involving characters on the aforementioned shitter get pretty tedious pretty fast). But much like "Passing Through a Prairie Country", Coydog is a book where neither the author nor the editors can decide if what they're publishing is a novel or a collection of short stories. I suspect I'll check out more of Tromblay's work in the future, but this one was a bit too slapdash for me.
The Coydog described both here on Goodreads and on Dzanc Books's website is a western in the neo-noir vein, gritty with hints of absurdism (how else to interpret the line "the source of a drug turning violent criminals into rodeo clowns"?) Not usually my cup of tea, but I was intrigued by the premise of a bounty hunter as our main character, since that's a profession that lives both inside and outside the law enforcement realm. I was also intrigued by how the shadow of the Oklahoma City bombing was implied to be cast across the plot, given Moses's own Desert Storm past.
However, the Coydog I read ended up being, well, not that. To be fair, the Coydog I did read was full of both surrealism and absurdism! But that's mostly because the abrupt jumps from chapter to chapter and stream of consciousness narration made it impossible to understand what was happening. The aforementioned Oklahoma City bombing casts no shadow across the plot, coming up once in a single sentence, and as for plot, there isn't really one. Things happen, Moe ruminates (sometimes about what happens but often times not), then something else happens. Note that I say Moe ruminates, not reacts. For all that happens in the span of the 227 pages I made it through, Moe has a complete absence of reaction to anything. I reached my stopping point when, in the past of two chapters, Moe watches a tiger eat someone, apprehends a (dwarf) fugitive-turned-wrestler, and helps blow up a gas station full of bikers. And his reaction to all of this?
As you may have guessed, there isn't one.
I'm giving this three stars because I actually really liked spending time with Moe. And the writing, while at times a little too "shitty gritty" for my taste, is snappy (although the various scenes involving characters on the aforementioned shitter get pretty tedious pretty fast). But much like "Passing Through a Prairie Country", Coydog is a book where neither the author nor the editors can decide if what they're publishing is a novel or a collection of short stories. I suspect I'll check out more of Tromblay's work in the future, but this one was a bit too slapdash for me.
November 21, 2025
I get so many book recommendations from my friends at @watermarkbooksandcafe and 𝑪𝑶𝒀𝑫𝑶𝑮 𝒃𝒚 𝑫𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝑻𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒚 is one that got me excited, especially when I could add the #gifted @simonmaverickaudio to it!
Add this to the crime noir subgenre that I am dabbling into more and more with pleasure. This tale is a quick paced action plot that brings Native American Moses Kincaid into the bounty hunting world after serving in Desert Storm & Haiti. The dusty backroads of Oklahoma have a surprisingly diverse cast of folks in the shadows, not least of which are the gang in the crosshairs of Moses from his latest target. Events don't seem to go his way, but he is offered an option that can be construed as a win...if he survives.
This is a gritty tale that has no sparing of violence in its telling. The layers that forms the hardness required for Moe are touched on, but I anticipate more from coming books (since it says it is An Anadarko County Novel) to delve into his character. For now, what is needed to know is known, and the action is unflinching & center.
The audio, narrated by E.M. Wylde, took me back into this 90's, wild west underbelly. A perfect voice for this story, I thoroughly enjoyed adding the audio to my print ARC!
Add this to the crime noir subgenre that I am dabbling into more and more with pleasure. This tale is a quick paced action plot that brings Native American Moses Kincaid into the bounty hunting world after serving in Desert Storm & Haiti. The dusty backroads of Oklahoma have a surprisingly diverse cast of folks in the shadows, not least of which are the gang in the crosshairs of Moses from his latest target. Events don't seem to go his way, but he is offered an option that can be construed as a win...if he survives.
This is a gritty tale that has no sparing of violence in its telling. The layers that forms the hardness required for Moe are touched on, but I anticipate more from coming books (since it says it is An Anadarko County Novel) to delve into his character. For now, what is needed to know is known, and the action is unflinching & center.
The audio, narrated by E.M. Wylde, took me back into this 90's, wild west underbelly. A perfect voice for this story, I thoroughly enjoyed adding the audio to my print ARC!
February 10, 2026
As someone who grew up in Oklahoma, it was fun to read a novel set there. That said, I didn’t grow up in the Oklahoma of this book. Kincaid faces more pain in whatever the timeline of this book is than anyone should face in a few lifetimes. I enjoyed the comedic relief in pockets and all the Oklahoma references. The violence was strong in sections, but I’m also not typically a noir reader, so take that with a grain of salt. Glad I read it, plus how many novels feature strip clubs, midget wrestling competitions, and prison rodeos?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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April 13, 2026This was a DNF for me. Got about a third of the way through. The gratuitous violence was no substitute, in my mind, for a coherent plot.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews