Dog Eats Dog

August 4, 2008
When wounded bank robber Phil Dixon flees a botched holdup in New Jersey at the start of this entertaining crime novel from Levison (Working Stiff’s Manifesto
), he winds up at the Tiburn, N.H., home of Elias White, a history professor whose academic aspirations far outmatch his abilities. Dixon intimidates White into sheltering him until he’s ready to escape to Canada, where he plans to start a new life as a farmer. White, meanwhile, sees opportunities to further his career in the situation. Later, FBI agent Denise Lupo, eager for an excuse to leave her dead-end New York City job for a couple of days, follows a slim clue that points to Dixon’s presence in New Hampshire. The prison-schooled Dixon, the pretentious White and Lupo with her shattered idealism give the author ample scope to nail a lot of targets. Not only does Levison score high on the satirical scale, he manages some ingenious plot shifts that should provoke both appreciative smiles and laughter.

September 15, 2008
Dixon is a bright, thoughtful recidivist who ruminates on the karmic impact of pointing his gun at people. He escapes a disastrously failed bank robbery in New Jersey with $250,000 in cash and a bullet wound, and he winds up near collapse outside the small-town New Hampshire home of history professor Elias White. More huckster than scholar or teacher, White is canoodling with a naked teenager when Dixon looks in the window. As soon as White is alone, Dixon enters and begins to turn his hostage into his accomplice. FBI Agent Denise Lupo, her hopes of becoming a profiler crushed in the male-dominated agency, learns that one of the stolen bills has surfaced in New Hampshire, and she sets off to find the robber. Levisons first novel, following the nonfiction success of A Working Stiffs Manifesto (2002), is a delightfully amiable and cynical tale. Its filled with droll humor, finely wrought characters, a brisk pace, and sharp dialogue.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)