lost dog

It's just gonna be an early morning jaunt to the park. No big deal. Peter McKrall, disaffected smart-ass and recovering kleptomaniac, hopes to find his niece's lost toy dog and get home again before she wakes up, or at least before his ears freeze off. The dead hooker he finds near the swings is not part of his plans.

Things just get worse when, at the crime scene, he has a chance encounter with the killer, Jake, who panics and sets out to implicate him in the crime. The next thing Peter knows, the victim’s frantic ex-con daughter is calling in the middle of the night and the police, misdirected by Jake and by Peter’s own sordid past, have cast suspicious eyes his way.

lost dog features a striking balance of suspense and biting humor as snarky, impulsive Peter gets caught up in a grim game of cat-and-mouse with the simpleminded yet darkly cunning Jake. Peter's efforts to stay out of the cross hairs of both the police and the killer, as well as come to terms with his own history, are aided by Darla, the bitter, broken daughter of the first victim, Skin Kadash, sardonic homicide detective, and Ruby Jane Whittaker, lively and eccentric mistress of coffee.

Set against the sodden, introspective backdrop of Portland, Oregon, lost dog tells of the intersection of one man's struggle against and another's embrace of their powerful and self-destructive impulses.

lost dog will be available in April 2007 from Midnight Ink Books.