A visceral- hard hitting crime fiction novel; from a man who practically grew up in the California penal system (Mr. Bunker was a thief and drug dealer, who spent more than 20 years behind bars before being released for the last time in 1975) In this book, Mr. Bunker has no time for florid/pretty prose. He gets to the meat and potatoes from the get-go (No pussyfooting, just the way me likes)

The main protagonists are: Troy Cameron and his two amigos; Diesel Carson and Gerald ‘Mad Dog’ McCain, whom after being release from the poky; are on a freight train to mayhem. Their plan is to only hit other criminals such as pimps, and drug dealers, because what are they gonna do? Call the cops?

Their first hit goes somewhat smoothly, the second one, however becomes complicated because their assignment is to kidnap a child from a former associate of a powerful Mexican kingpin. Amid all of this there’s an elephant farting in the room, because one of the protagonist is nothing more than a drug-addled, blood thirsty, cold blooded killer, who has innocent blood on his hands—a passage in the book which I found upsetting—but that’s what great art does; it’s supposed to move you one way or another, but move you nonetheless.

Five out of Five Stars for this dark, violent and unsettling novel.

Edward Bunker, writer and actor, born December 31 1933; died July 19 2005 RIP.
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Mr. Bunker was a bank robber that got caught served his time and stayed out of jail to write. This experience allows for a realism that is unsurpassed. Not Hammett, Chandler, or even Thompson can equal it. ( )

Eddie Bunker was a crime writer who knew crime: he grew up in the California criminal system and was a professional thief. That experience, plus twenty years of labor as a professional writer, gives Dog Eat Dog a brutal realism that is seldom found in fiction.

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007/11/dog-eat-dog-by-edward-bunker-eddie.html