Dog Eat Dog: AND Little Boy Blue [Paperback]

Ex-convict Bunker proved he could write a strong, dark thriller with his first book, No Beast So Fierce. For his latest effort, he returns to the same kind of story -- smart but doomed ex-cons doing the only kind of thing they know how to do. Troy Cameron came from a wealthy Beverly Hills family before reform school and San Quentin knocked off some of the polish. Now he has linked up with a pair of psychopathic colleagues to prey on other criminals. In Bunker's hands, the material takes on a great deal of energy and even sympathy for the devils. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Based on the suspense he generates in his fourth novel, it's easy to see why Bunker, an ex-con, has acquired such diverse admirers as Quentin Tarantino (who cast him as Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs) and William Styron (who contributes an introduction to this novel). This time around, the narrator is Troy Cameron, an upper-class Beverly Hills boy turned hardened criminal, who emerges from stints at reform school and San Quentin to join up with his buddies, Gerald "Mad Dog" McCain and Diesel Carson, in a haphazard scheme to steal from pimps, hustlers and other fellow criminals. Their first crime, a robbery in which they shake down a major L.A. drug dealer, goes smoothly, but the heat increases on their second assignment, a revenge crime in which a Mexican prison lord offers them a fortune to kidnap the baby of a former companion who has shown him disrespect. The kidnapping is complicated by Troy's growing discomfort when he discovers that the erratic Mad Dog has murdered his former girlfriend and her child in cold blood. Bunker's plot bears some resemblance to those of his earlier novels (No Beast So Fierce; Animal Factory), but his storytelling is once again first-rate as the botched kidnapping leads to a series of violent confrontations that produce a dark but satisfying ending. What distinguishes Bunker from other crime writers is his ability to convey the compassion dormant within his violent criminals without resorting to excess luridness, sympathy or moralism. Bunker has a top-notch screenplay to his credit (Runaway Train); this powerful tale seems tailor-made for Hollywood success as well.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Bunker's three previous novels, including the critically acclaimed No Beast So Fierce (1972), dealt with the harsh reality of crime and prison life. His early life in reformatory school and penitentiaries probably accounts for the gripping verisimilitude of his stories, which are powerful but depressing. Dog Eat Dog is another chilling depiction of characters and situations that are haunting in their hopelessness. Antihero Troy Cameron has a past similar to the author's, so he sees very few options when he is released from prison. He shortly teams up with two other ex-convicts and drives to Mexico to heist over $300,000 from an illegal drug operation. The rough dialog and violence won't have mass appeal, but readers who like hard-edged drama will find much to like here. Recommended.?Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

It's far easier to string adjectives together about this novel than it is to review it: harrowing, compelling, beautifully written, intelligent, affecting, and frightening immediately come to mind. Bunker tells the story of three reform-school friends, who, by age 15, are hardened career criminals. At the first moment they are all out of jail at the same time, they begin preying on other criminals, primarily because their victims won't complain to the police. Dog Eat Dog has everything a first-rate crime novel needs. Troy, Diesel, and Mad Dog are complex characters, simultaneously affecting and repugnant to the reader. Their story is compelling and skillfully told, and their world, both inside prison walls and out on the street, is fascinating in a horrific way. But what sets this novel apart is that Bunker lived his subject. Sent to reform school at 11, he was in prison almost continually until age 40. So his description of the penal system as a "hothouse" for growing "maniacs" and his observations about a violent society in decline are genuinely frightening for square johns like us. Thomas Gaughan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A grim '90s noir caper by the celebrated ex-con author of Little Boy Blue (1981), etc. Troy Cameron is a savvy, good-looking sociopath whose career goal is to be an outlaw with a lifetime income. Diesel Cameron, a tight friend he made at reform school, has a wife, a son, and a job with the teamsters that doesn't involve anything more serious than breaking legs and torching the occasional truck. Mad Dog McCain, the faithful companion who once got himself tossed into the hole to save Troy's parole, solves tough problems by killing the people who pose them. When Troy gets sprung from San Quentin, the three of them--their loyalties overriding but not mitigating their wary distrust of each other--team up in hopes of pulling a job that will get them out of the loop for good. It's a pipe dream, of course. Figuring that the best victims are criminals who can't run to the police, Troy and his buddies kidnap a baby druglord and force him to turn over a fat stash to them, as the dialogue bristles and the action crackles with authenticity. But a second kidnapping--snatching a major smuggler's infant as collateral for an uncollectible debt the smuggler owes a trafficker now lording it over a Mexican prison--goes wrong in a horrifyingly funny way, and the three conspirators find themselves on the run, wanted by every cop in California, and predictably at odds with each other. Throughout this brutal catalog of crimes, Bunker has his own axe to grind--the insanity of a three-strikes law that makes any two-time loser willing to kill to avoid being picked up on the smallest felony charge--but what lingers in the memory is the single-mindedness of his doomed hoodlums, who can't focus on anything but survival, revenge, and the big score. A jolt of frozen adrenaline, relieved only by the walk-ons of the latest accomplices and victims. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Little Boy Blue: Alex is surrounded by well-meaning social workers and by no good peers. Alex is on a collision course with the law and himself. Dog Eat Dog: The story of three men fresh out of prison who now have the task of adapting to civilian life. But what the hell, they're going to do it, and they're going to do it their way.

Edward Bunker's life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools. From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system. He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon. A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison. It took him 17 years, six novels and over a hundred short stories before his first book was published - as well as surviving on the proceeds of crime, he used to sell his own blood to raise the money to send his writing to publishers and magazines. His first published novel, No Beast So Fierce viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog (all published by No Exit Press), admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. His autobiography Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade, recounts the story of his extraordinary life in brutal detail and has been described as a literary triumph. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs. Bunker On the Web There are interviews with Eddie Bunker available online, at the Richmond Review site, on Crime Time Online, on Bookends, RTE online and Bizarre amongst others. He gets numerous honorable mentions on the plethora of sites dedicated to Reservoir Dogs, although of course he has considerably more experience in the film industry, having appeared in several films, written screenplays and acted as advisor on many more. In 1978 a documentary was made about the making of Straight Time and includes interviews with Eddie Bunker who was incarcerated at that time in Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. More can be found on the Straight Time documentary site and while the video of Straight Time is deleted in the UK at present, Blackstar have a video search service that may turn it up. More recently, Edward Bunker has contributed the screenplay for the film of The Animal Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi, Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs. There are reviews from the Sundance film festival, from dbmedia.org and information at Kodak.com on the making of the film. Obviously more to come. Finally there is of course his own home page at edwardbunker.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.