Book Review: Hard Dog's Night

The Hound Dogs search for a drummer to complete their lineup while The Dice hires Patrick McNeil as Danny Bruer's replacement. Unbeknownst to The Dice, Patrick carries a hidden agenda to sabotage his former band and settle old scores.

As Patrick and his accomplice, Stu, execute their plot, questions loom over the Madison Community Center. Can The Hound Dogs triumph against the odds? Will the controversy ignite a community torn between tradition and rebellion?

In a world where rock-n-roll rebels against societal norms, the destinies of two bands hang in precarious balance. The echoes of their battle will resonate far beyond the Madison Community Center.

Hard Dog's Night, the follow up to Hound Dogged (2023) by Rebecca Hendricks, will be self-published August 6, 2024.

I liked the first book in the series well enough that seeing the second one pop up had me interested. I also like to support authors who are doing whatever it takes to get the stories in them out for others to enjoy.

Again, I must praise Hendricks on several fronts. She captures 1950's America well, from the fashion to the mannerisms to the dialogue. It all fits. Even when she touches on themes that we might not have seen on classic shows from that era, she manages to keep it all within that framework in presentation and messaging. It is a sanitized approach where there is no usage of curse words, and any intense sexual moments are cut-away rather than being explicitly portrayed. She has taken the time to really immerse herself in the world within which her characters live. For readers comfortable with that as well, this is a nice place to land.

Also, as I noted last book, Hendricks takes her time unfolding her story. Once more, we're clocking in at over 400+ pages; she definitely is giving readers their money's worth. Because the book has such a large cast of characters (adding more new characters this time around like Ronnie the drummer, Nancy the teen reporter and more), the larger page count makes sense; it gives each one time some time in the narrative spotlight. In a lot of ways, this series reminds me of the classic soap operas with detailed scenes of several subplot threads going on at the same time. The story moves at a slower pace, reflective of the 1950's time period, but the book still reads in a "moving manner".

Overall, this was a relaxing, enjoyable read.