title: Vicious Dogs (Lasker Investigations)
author:  Henry Brock 
description: <span>The Manhattan Book Review:</span><br /><br /><span>Star Rating: 5 / 5</span><br /><br /><span>It's amazing how a year without work has the ability to alter a person's sense of well being. A victim of the above-mentioned circumstances, Private Investigator (PI) Derek Lasker is one level short of living on the street. An out-of-the-blue phone call from Bob Linehan gets Derek temporarily out of his funk. Bob hires Derek to keep 24-hour tabs on Junior, his seventeen-year-old son, since he is certain that Junior decapitated the next-door neighbor's cat. Toward the end of the first day of the investigation, a twist in the case results in the termination of Derek's assignment. Regardless of the case's outcome, Derek inconspicuously continues the investigation. But just as he is at the cusp of solving the case, Derek has to re-think his evidence when a chain of unexpected events with sinister underpinnings is revealed.</span><br /><br /><span>Brock reshapes the traditional gumshoe persona in his debut noir novel. Set in Toronto, Canada, Brock's first-person plot features Derek Lasker, a quasi-typical loser PI who feigns a tough outer shell. Yet underneath the artificial display is a man with a penchant for classic literature, such as the works of Shakespeare, Orwell, and Kafka. Brock surrounds his principal character with a tight and colorful cast of characters who serve for the most part as foils; many of these foils are just plain bullies. Nonetheless, Derek always finds a way to either work around or with these surly characters while attempting to bring his case to a close. Brock's narrative is a pleasant mix of conventional and not-so-conventional hard-boiled noir, which includes a good deal of captivating dialogue and a pinch of banality amid a heavy surge of mystery-laced twists and turns that is all woven together with light humor. This balanced combination is certain to become a new favorite for noir aficionados. Obviously, since Vicious Dogs closes on a cliffhanger, fans should be on the look-out for its sequel, tentatively named String Theory.</span><br /><br /><span>Reviewed by Anita Lock</span><br /><br />Mystery Scene Magazine:<br /><br />Henry Brocks <i>Vicious Dogs</i>isn't going to be for everyone,since it begins with a decapitated cat. Still, the book's dark humor keeps thegrisly plot afloat. Our Canadian antihero is Derek Lasker, an unsuccessfulprivate detective, who is not only living in his car, but also works as aguinea pig for drug companies. Lasker knows he's a loser, but he's funny aboutit.<br /><br />"I hated to think of all the crap that was floating around inside of me...Being infested with untested drugs was a bit more frightening than therecreational variety that I favored in my younger days."<br /><br /><br />When worried father Bob Senior hires him to shadow BobJunior, an unruly teen suspected of beheading the neighbor's cat, Lasker isquick to take the case. Compared to other cases he's worked, this one soundsdull, but the PI is tired of living on the street. As it turns out,decapitating cats may be the least of Junior's crimes.<br /><br /><br />While following the young man, Lasker is lead throughToronto's mean streets, from a psychotic dojo master to a dogfighting ring thatpits knife-wielding humans against Rottweilers. Thankfully, the dogfightingscene is mercifully short, although it still makes for uncomfortable reading.On a more positive note, Brock loves to set stereotypes on their clichd heads.There is a surprising turnaround when one of the bad guys turns out to be ananimal-lover who can't wait to take the nasty Bob Junior apart.<br /><br /><br />Despite its gruesome subject matter, "Vicious Dogs" remainsan excellent, vibrant read, even though it does rather tarnish the image ofCanada being an always gentle country where the most untoward behavior isordering an Americano at a Tim Hortons.<br /><br /><span>"A classic PI story with a fresh new voice. Vicious Dogshits all the right notes. And who says Canadians are so polite? By the end,this dog bites!</span><br /><span>A north-of-the-border PI story from down in the gutter. DerekLasker is an investigator with nowhere to go but up, but watching him do so isgreat fun and will surely launch a long-running series. Spot on for PI fans wholike a character to root for tangled in a messy investigation."</span><br /><span></span><br /><span>-Eric Beetner, author of <i>Rumrunners</i> and <i>The Devil Doesn't Want Me</i></span><br /><br /><span>"In Vicious Dogs, Henry Brock takes us on a tour of Toronto's seedy underbelly while reinventing the hardboiled noir. The first (of, I hope, many) Derek Lasker Investigations delivers a whip-crack plot and devilish humor thatgoes down like a tall can of Molson's after a plate of poutine."</span>
zlib_text: **Table of Contents**
  
  _Title Page_
  
  _Copyright Page_
  
  _Dedication_
  
  _Acknowledgements_
  
    
  
  one
  
  two
  
  three
  
  four
  
  five
  
  six
  
  seven
  
  eight
  
  nine
  
  ten
  
  eleven
  
  twelve
  
  thirteen
  
  fourteen
  
  fifteen
  
  sixteen
  
  seventeen
  
  eighteen
  
  nineteen
  
  twenty
  
  twenty-one
  
  twenty-two
  
  twenty-three
  
  twenty-four
  
  twenty-five
  
  twenty-six
  
  twenty-seven
  
  twenty-eight
  
  twenty-nine
  
  epilogue
  
    
  
  NICE DOGGIE . . .
  
  Cerberus turned its Snarly head, and the giant, jaundiced eye unblinkingly
  trained itself on my frozen form. The dog’s eye narrowed, and I knew without
  anyone saying anything out loud that I was only one slo-mo minute from getting
  digested.
  
  The other two heads stopped their obsessive licking and raised themselves in
  line with Snarly head. They didn’t look nearly as mean as Snarly, but as I
  watched, something much worse began to register in their eyes: excitement. The
  big hellhound’s tail started thumping more quickly against the gate.
  
  Then, without warning, Snarly head swooped forward, teeth bare