Rain Dogs - Hardcover

BARON R. BIRTCHER spent a number of years as a professional musician, and founder of an independent records label. His first two mystery novels, Roadhouse Blues and Ruby Tuesday were Los Angeles Times and IMBA Bestsellers. Angels Fall, the third installment in the critically-acclaimed Mike Travis series, was nominated for the Left Coast Crime Award (the "Lefty") for Best Law Enforcement/Police Procedural novel of the year. Rain Dogs is his first stand-alone novel, and was a Claymore Award finalist.

"A top-class thriller."   ---San Francisco Book Review

"A gritty, wide-angled modern noir, with a taut, powerfully controlled narrative. Birtcher (author of the Mike Travis series) pulls no punches."   ---Kirkus Reviews

"Birtcher combines a gritty, action-filled thriller with a nuanced, almost contemplative character drama... Thoroughly entertaining."   ---Booklist

"Combining vivid scenes, sympathetic characters, and graphic descriptions, Birtcher catapults readers to the center of the action."   ---Entertainment Realm (2013 Summer Book Picks)

"Rain Dogs is a is a thriller with genuine shocks and chills. A combination of gritty realism and lyrically descriptive prose draws the reader in. The danger is plausible and palpable. But an anchor of humanity remains...  a novel that keeps [you] enthralled and uncertain from beginning to end."   ---Cafe Libri

"Rain Dogs proves to be a taut and exciting read. Overall, you can't ask for a better thriller than this..."   ---Thinking About Books

White-knuckle tension and crisp, clean prose distinguish this outstanding standalone from Birtcher (Angels Fall and two other Mike Travis mysteries). In 1976, Colombian and Mexican criminals are turning cocaine smuggling into a major industry, while the U.S. war on drugs is beginning to produce serious casualties. The nameless narrator is running a small-scale marijuana operation in California s Humboldt County, until bandits raid his farm and a shiftless kid rats him out. The narrator flees to a small Mexican town, where he collides with the schemes of local drug lord Miguel Zamora, who s spiraling out of control as he feeds his coke addiction and who foolishly plots to rip off both the Colombians and his partners in the government. Meanwhile, two corrupt border cops discover that they re way over their heads in their dealings with Zamora. Unable to trust anyone around them, the two must learn how far they can trust themselves. Many books call themselves thrillers, but this is the real deal. --Publishers Weekly Starred Review