Dogs

May 26, 2008
Hugo- and Nebula-winner Kress (Beggar's Ride
) offers a spine-chilling, suspense-laden story of pets turned unwitting killers. Why are previously well-behaved pet dogs in rural Tyler, Md., turning on their owners and biting them? What is it that makes the dog bites so lethal? And what about these random events makes the Feds so touchy? Former FBI agent Tessa Sanderson, a dog owner and recent widow who just moved to Tyler, wants to know, and insists on helping Jess Langstrom, a longtime resident of Tyler and its chief animal control officer, to investigate, even as the FBI begins investigating her for suspected links to terrorist organizations. Together and separately, Tessa and Jess track down the answers to Tyler's frightening human and animal crisis. Kress brings her thorough knowledge of genetics and biology to bear in this nicely creepy thriller.

July 15, 2008
Tired of being passed over for promotion and suspecting that her recently deceased Tunisian husband is the cause, Tessa Sanderson leaves the FBI andrelocates to the small town of Tyler, MD. Trouble follows her, however, inthe form of a mysterious and sudden canine plague that heightens the aggression of its victims, causing them to attack anyone in their path - even their beloved owners. A series of threatening emails implicating Tessa in a terrorist plot connected with the plague causes her to turn fugitive in order to track down the perpetrators of the illness and restore the good name of both herself and her husband. The author of the "Probability" trilogy ("Probability Moon"; "Probability Sun; "Probability Space") has crafted a fast-moving thriller (think Stephen King's "Cujo") that capitalizes on Americans' love for their dogs. Unfortunate breed stereotyping - most of the dogs involved in the attacks are pit bulls, rottweilers, German shepherds, and other "big" dogs - mars an otherwise well-told tale of one woman's determination to uncover the truth, whateverits consequences. For larger sf collections.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2008
Man's best friend - but what if Rover suddenly attacks and kills the childwho owns and loves him? What if the same happens to other kids - and adults - down the street and all across town? Kress' taut thriller cuts tothe core of the man-dog bond to unsettle, unnerve, and unravel readers trust. A canine virus sweeps through a rural town in which widowed Tessa, once an FBI agent, lives with her poodle. Repeatedly passed over for promotion because her husband was Arab, Tessa has turned her back on agency business; but now shes a subject of interest in quarantined Tyler (a federal disaster area, no less), where some have surrendered their dogs to the local animal-control people while others have freed theirs to roamwildly, form packs, and kill. Just why is Tessa's name turning up in telecommunications monitored by the feds? After Tessa goes undercover to find out, the suspense ratchets up in this perfect vacation read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)