Dog Days: A Novel - Softcover

"The Washington Times" The characters are crude, corrupt, certainly not politically correct. But it's exactly this absence of sanctimoniousness that makes this story (and others in this notable first collection) so enjoyable. The author's great strength is his willingness to let his characters enjoy being bad.

"Detroit Free Press" He has given us an absorbing, sometimes astounding, often funny, always honest look at a world where people get what they want, then struggle mightily to live with the heartbreaking consequences.

"The Boston Book Review" Exhibiting an economy of phrase and a precision of description, Lyons makes an auspicious debut with this powerful first book. Despite the darkness he visits upon his characters, Lyons's stories leave the reader with an abiding sense of redemption, and a belief in the power of the human spirit to survive and to aspire to be good.

Gary Krist in "The Hudson Review" The author's depiction of the loopy marginality of these hacker-types is an achievement in itself (these are characters I've rarely seen written about).

"The New York Times Book Review" Mr. Lyons handles plots impressively. His prose is forceful and his stories are firmly rooted in their physical world....Mr. Lyons delivers.

Love, sex, death, money, and dogs - they're all here in Dan Lyons's debut novel, Dog Days. Lyons gives us a hip and hilarious tale of love (both canine and carnal) and a story of revenge gone wrong. Packing the same contemporary verve as Douglas Coupland's Microserfs and the criminally black humor of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Dog Days is a coming-of-age story that deftly deals with the confusion, hopes, and fears that go hand-in-hand with being smart, ambitious, and twenty-four years old. Reilly is a software developer living in Boston's North End. He's a young guy in a young business where the speed of change guarantees that only the fast survive. But Reilly doesn't know how fast things can change until he starts playing vendetta with a local mafioso. Before this fracas got started, Reilly thought he had it made. He had a beautiful girlfriend named Jeanie who had rowed at Harvard, and he and his roommate, Evan, were working on a project that was going to make them both rich. But for Reilly, the good times don't last long. First Jeanie leaves him for one of the suits in marketing, and then his big project falls to pieces. Then one summer night, Reilly decides to leave his vintage BMW in Davio Giaccalone's parking space. Naturally enough, the car ends up tireless. Reilly vows to get revenge, and he's angry enough to do just about anything to even the score. With Evan's help, Reilly devises a plan to take an eye for an eye by abducting Giaccalone's most prized possession: a gorgeous jet-black champion racing grey-hound named Coco. When their little prank turns into serious blackmail with thirty thousand dollars on the line, Reilly and Evan are in way over their heads. But with the help of their friend and neighbor, the beautiful Maria, they manage to return the dog and collect the money