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Stray Dogs Unknown Binding – January 1, 1997

by John Ridley (Author)

4.4 29 ratings

"It's the heat that makes you crazy. I don't know what it is, but it works that way for man and animal alike. I've seen some peculiar things on a hot day too. I've seen a scorpion sting itself to death. It just keeps drivin' its tail into its body again and again. A little killer killing itself. And what a man'll do on a hot day. A man could get his self killed just for rubbing shoulders with another. . . ."A loner, a drifter, a gambler--John Stewart asks little of life. But when his '64 Mustang busts a radiator hose in the middle of the empty Nevada desert, he prays to God, Buddha, L. Ron. And rolls into the tiny town of Sierra. Where he finds . . . nothing. A gas station whose former owner is lying low in the cemetery. A strip of barren, dust-blown store fronts. A truck stop cafe with more flies than customers.Stewart wants out. Sucker-punched in a rigged poker game, he's got to get to Vegas to settle a debt. Or else.Then in walks Grace, a seductive knockout who can read fortunes in faces. In the next twenty-four hours, Stewart becomes ensnared in a web of dirty double-crosses, cold propositions, and desperate souls--deadly ground where murder is just one gasp away.A stunning, fast-paced novel, Stray Dogs unfolds with unrelenting tension, memorable characters, and shocking twists of plot. John Ridley has created a hypnotic story that is pure noir, from its first page until its shattering climax.From the Hardcover edition.

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0
Pages
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

1997
January 1
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John Ridley
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003L1YFCO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (January 1, 1997)
Unknown Binding ‏ : ‎ 0 pages

Customer Reviews:
4.4 29 ratings

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John Ridley

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4.4 out of 5

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Josh Busfield

condition

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

the description said the condition was acceptable. damn thing was almost brand new.

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2023

The story takes place in a roughly 24 hour period. And in that 24 hours, a man who gets stranded in a small desert town has to wander place to place and figure out how to not die. The entire time it is 100 degrees out. It’s definitely worth picking up. A crazy almost “Twilight Zone” vibe of one thing going wrong after another. I couldn’t put it down. Just so engaging.

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is the book that the movie U-turn was based on. Beleive it or not I actually liked the movie a little better only because the book was so short., The movie follows the almost identical plot of the book but leaves out some details of the main role that would have been nice to see on film.

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2013

Verified Purchase

Thanks a lot to John Ridley for an excellent book. I really enjoyed this book and thought it was better than the movie.

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2015

I really enjoyed this book. You're not going to identify with the protagonist - unless, you're a stupid, crime ridden loser - but you will like how good he is at being these things. Additionally, you will enjoy Ridley's unique voice. I'm off to check out Ridley's other books.

Loren W. Christensen, author of the Dukkha police/thriller series.

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ti82@geocities.com

entertaining, at best

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 1998

There were some quirky characters, but other than that, this book is pretty bland. After a while, nothing comes as a surprise. The main character is totally unappealing. No point to it.

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Hassan Galadari

Fast! Grim! Menacing!

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2001

Those three words sum up what this book is really about. I was talking to my fiance one day and asked her what were the recent movies she had seen recently. She said U-Turn, and I remembered that movie from old previews in the past and the fact that I have not watched it yet. Though it was an Oliver Stone movie and had such an outlandish cast, I just couldn't bring myself to actually watch something that I thought would not appeal to me. And there was that eensy weensy little bit of detail that my fiance did not actually like the movie. That enough, it would seem was the main drive of me not really pushing it to actually go watch it.
The movie, I guess stuck in my subcounsious, because the minute I saw the book in the bookstore, it caught my attention. I read the sleeve and went on through to the first chapter and completely gulped it up. I thought tyo myself "Huh? Was this book really good?" And I guess it was, the style was so much different from the literary adevents that I sually go for, which gave this piece of work a real blast. Ridley excels in creating the noir scenes and passes through them with ease and clarity. He is not very much into details, which makes the book read like a movie script. All I had to do was close my eyes and truly imagine the people. Ridley fails in creating how his characters actually look like, but since the book was made into a movie, all a person would do is know which actors played what. That's a real downsider at first, since it's all much more fun to picture caracters through your own mind's eye and not have it be desensitized by having pictured actors in your head.
This book is great. It's not the best book I have ever read in my life, nor is it the worst. You can, if you're a fast reader and have time on your hands, finish it in less than a day. It's short, way up to the point and the all of the characters seem to stand out as their own.
Now though, I have not watched the movie with my fiance, I can proudly say that I have experienced its feel. One thing that should be put into mind is that both the book and the movie have different endings, so both are a treat.

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Carpo Collins

The Oliver Stone film U-Turn pretty closely follows the book

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2016

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A creepy thriller, not without humor set, in an uninviting desert town. The Oliver Stone film U-Turn pretty closely follows the book, with some extra detail about some of the denizens' lives.

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