Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Book Reviews: Breathless and Orchid Beach

Breathless, by Dean Koontz and Orchid Beach by Stuart Woods both feature a dog as a main character. Breathless an Irish Wolfhound, and Orchid Beach a Doberman. I had not read books by either author, so didn't have any background to draw from in the novels.



Breathless is a novel that gives you multiple characters, multiple viewpoints, and a rather unique plot twist. It was kind of short and thin when it comes to the story, more like it was an expanded short story, rather than a full novel. Still quite enjoyable though. I especially liked the characterization of the wolfhound. Very much accurate, from the personality to the noisy drinking. Good fun, but if you don't like stories with odd philosophical twists you may not enjoy this.


Orchid Beach is a good detective story, with the twist of a female lead, who befriends a highly trained female Doberman. The dog is integral to the story, and well written. Lots of action, and the dog is involved in most of it. (Note to self: Never antagonize an attack trained Dobe.) I recomend it for any dog person, but if you love action/mysteries, you will really enjoy it.

Both are good summer reads, and have dog characters, what could be better?

2 comments:

  1. My favorite part of Breathless was everything with the Wolfhound, and the interaction with the, er, creatures. It was a fun, easy read, but I agree that it wasn't a fully fleshed-out story and could have been so much more.

    You should really read one of Koontz's older books, Watchers. You will fall in love with the doggie in that book, Einstein.

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  2. I'll have to look for it. I see from his bio he has a golden. :-)

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