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Ella Hatto is a student from a nice, comfortable family, on holiday in Italy with her boyfriend Chris. They are sitting outside a pavement cafe laughing and joking, relaxed and happy, watching the world go by. Ella should take that moment and bottle it, because her world is about to take a violent turn. She doesn't know it, but her mother, father and brother have been murdered at their quiet home in England; she doesn't know that she's become a multimillionaire; she doesn't know that she's in danger; she doesn't know that two men are walking towards her to kill her. She also doesn't know that semi-retired hitman, Lucas, who is sitting in a cafe on the other side of the road, and who has been watching her for a few days, is about to cross the street and save her life. Ella finds all this out pretty quickly, and her life will never be the same again. Ella and Chris are spirited off to safety by Lucas and the time they spend in each others' company changes them. Lucas is a thoughtful hitman -- he's reading The Nibelungenlied, a German epic poem of fate, tragedy and retribution. Ella is reading Jane Austen's Persuasion -- a novel of romance, redemption and reconciliation. FOR THE DOGS encompasses all those themes -- but with more bullets. Lucas and Ella swap books, and they touch each others' lives. Lucas' cool, professional facade slips as he sees things in Ella that he is missing in his own solitary life, and he helps her try to come to terms with the death of her family. Ella sees in Lucas a way of getting her revenge on the people who have killed the family she loves. FOR THE DOGS is the story of two people whose lives are changed dramatically because of their encounter. It's a simple plot, a fast and thrilling read, a short book which says a lot. Kevin Wignall doesn't waste words or bullets -- each finds their target in a brutal and unsentimental manner.
Reviewed by Donna Moore, August 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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