Hound Dog

by Richard Blandford

The best Elvis impersonator novel you will ever read .Call him Elvis. The premier Elvis impersonator in the whole of the Cambridgeshire region. He's overweight and bald and old. He is partial to cocaine, sells skunk to local teenagers and masturbates six or seven times a day.And he hates Elvis Presley.Things start to go wrong for Elvis when his backing singers, Gay Elvis and Fat Elvis, jump ship and have to replaced by Buddy Holly, a postman with bladder problems. Then Eddie, a dubious businessman, calls offering the biggest gig of Elvis's career – performing at the birthday party of a vicious gangster who just happens to be married to Elvis's third ex-wife.' Phoenix Nights meets American Psycho . In Cambridge.'Kevin Sampson'Hound Dog is distressingly, worryingly funny. With skill and sensitivity, Blandford keeps the reader laughing, even through the depravity; even through the despair; even, indeed, through the moments of startling ferocity.'Niall Griffiths'Slick, efficient and faintly nasty.'Observer'Squalid, raucous and wildly entertaining'Dan Rhodes(Originally published by Jonathan Cape in 2006)

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

Reviews

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brace yourself for a descent into Elvis Hell, for here is the chronicle of a drunken, coke-fueled, wank-addicted Elvis impersonator who hates Elvis and nevertheless manipulates and brutalizes a Buddy Holly impersonator.

But it's so much more: a tale of psychosis and redemption, a meditation on the trajectory of life success with prison-buggery as metaphor, a manual on how to cuddle and whimper yourself out of a murderous gangster corner. Hell I don't know, just let's say that on a metaphorical level there were zero caught rabbits bestowed by, and zero friends attached to, our title character. And though many people die, nobody dies on a toilet.

"As Elvis, things flow through me," says our hero toward the end. Indeed, they do.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Blandford's style and how he hooked me into a character, an ex-con, neighborhood drug dealer and a bad Elvis impersonator, who is totally unlikable. Love the book's ending. So many crime novels I've read petered out by the climax. Hound Dog packs solid punches from beginning to end. Can't wait for his 2nd novel.

[Ms. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't want it to end. I loved hating and hated loving the main character!!!!