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Stray Dogs, the debut book by Richard John Parfitt, is about three high school dropouts who sell remainder dictionaries for a living until they become mixed up with a seemingly supernatural knife, The Devil's Children motorcycle gang, murder, love, teen pregnancy, and a roadtrip to save their lives. In this hardboiled, noir style, coming of age story, John Turner, Millboy, and the girl "with the boy's name" Frankie, discover themselves and each other on a journey that will haunt them forever.
About the author
Richard John Parfitt is a writer, musician and academic. Born and living in South Wales, he spent two years as a teenager not going to school in Toronto, Canada. In the mid 1990s he was founder member of rock group 60ft Dolls, scoring a top 40 album and a number of hits. The group played with well-known bands like Oasis, Dinosaur Jr, and the Sex Pistols. As a songwriter and musician, he has worked for many high-profile artists including Dido, Duffy and McAlmont & Butler. As a writer, he was shortlisted for the New Welsh Review Rheidol Prize. He has also had work published in Planet: The Welsh Internationalist, The Conversation, and Wales Arts Review, The Portland Review and Red Pepper.
Summary
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.
