At first, To the Dogs sounds like a gripping academic thriller. Professor James Brennan is a well-respected criminologist trying to escape his father’s shadow, but things quickly spiral out of control. Just as he’s being considered for a top university position, his son gets arrested again for drugs. Then a Chinese graduate student goes missing, an old friend-turned-lawyer named Eddie Cranston offers help Brennan doesn’t seem to want, and a former student named Becca steps in with help that feels a little too convenient.
There’s a lot going on such as university politics, shady deals, hints of espionage but I often found myself lost. The characters are distant, their motives unclear, and the emotional connection just wasn’t there for me. The tension between Brennan and Eddie is never fully explained, and Brennan’s wife feels more like a background character.
While the book explores some deep themes like corruption, moral decay, and one man’s fall from grace, it didn’t fully land for me. To the Dogs has a strong setup, but in the end, it felt like a puzzle that never quite came together. A promising thriller that loses its way under the weight of too many subplots and too little emotional payoff.