Description

Turner is a high school dropout newly arrived in Toronto. After taking a job selling dictionaries for a local grifter named Romeo Silva, the day goes wrong and Turner gets into a fight with a biker who ends up getting stabbed in the head. On the run from both Romeo and the Devil’s Children biker gang , Turner and his pals, Millboy and Frankie, find an abandoned summerhouse in which to hide out. But tensions within the group damage personal relationships as external threats converge to destroy the lives they had. In this hardboiled coming-of-age story that explores friendship, sex, drugs, and family: three teenagers on the edge of seventeen discover themselves and each other during a road trip of wild reversals on a journey that will haunt them forever.

Publisher Review

Richard John Parfitt (of the critically acclaimed band 60ft Dolls) writes taut, tense, economical, prose and this novel is as fierce, catchy and full of hooks as any of his brilliant songs. - Jon Langford, The Mekons "Coming-of-age story and a tense crime drama; Stray Dogs brings together the best of both." -Vol 1 Brooklyn "A tough growing-up novel, tautly written and full of reflective energy."-The Critic "An instant cult classic."-Buzz Magazine "Expertly tempered by something very real; Parfitt's sublime gift for nailing the romantic yet unruly teenage voice." - Rachel Tresize, Nation Cymru "Grabs the sonic cinema of Springsteen's Thunder Road by the lapels and smashes it face-first through The Boss's windshield" - 3:AM Magazine "'I told em we were no thrill-kill cult and that we were just ordinary dictionary salesmen on a delivery job gone wrong.' Richard John Parfitt's blood-soaked fever dream of Toronto teens at the turn of the 80s reads like Taxi Driver turned upside down; the street kids remix.' - John Williams, author of The Cardiff Trilogy "Immediately after finishing this novel I knew it would haunt me for a long, long time. It's a compelling and driven picaresque of great humour, beauty, horror and intense emotional weight, acutely attuned to the world's hopes and heartbreaks. Fantastic, in several senses''- Niall Griffiths, author of Broken Ghosts, winner 2020 Wales Book of the Year Stray Dogs is a raw, visceral and hard-hitting read, with a distinct and memorable voice. It takes readers deep into the gritty depths of the city and into the minds and hearts of the characters we find there - Emma Hooper, author of We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky "Stray Dogs exceeded my expectations and gave me a new author to be very excited about."- TriYou "Fasten your seat belt, Richard John Parfitt has a journey for you - Wow!"-Murder in Common "I had a blast reading Richard John Parfitt's debut novel, Stray Dogs, It's grimly humorous, with several laugh-out-loud moments. Entering territory frequented by Cormac McCarthy, Scott Phillips, and the Coen Brothers, I was darkly entertained from start to finish." - Gavin Cologned-Brookes, author of Rereading William Styron and American Lonesome: The Work of Bruce Springsteen