Review: Overly violent with little else
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 22, 2013
The premise for The Temple Dogs is quite interesting. Cochran and Murphy delve into the criminal underworld not only in the United States, but Japan as well. Exploring the infamous Yakuza, this novel had the potential to be a fascinating comparison between the Asian and Western mafia within the framework of the larger thriller story. What we have instead is a glorification of violence in all its excess with little else.The novel opens with bubbly Suzi and her husband preparing for their wedding. The characters were little more than cliches and when they are killed at the end of chapter one, I sadly hadn't invested anything in them to care. Suzi's brother's revenge therefore, carries little weight throughout the rest of the novel. The narrative continues to spiral into violent absurdities as the story progresses. Why the Yakuza would spend time, energy, and effort training a rich American boy to be a warrior confounds me and the story never really gives me a good reason. Lines such as "you had you your chance to go home, little boy" are straight out of any bad Hollywood gangster script. I'm not familiar with Japanese culture, but it seemed to me that the portrayals here were overly stereotypical. Geishas and ninjas? Really?The violence was perhaps the most difficult to wade through here. I am not a fan of violence, murder, and torture in place of depth of narrative, character development, and theme. The Temple Dogs authors clearly disagree. The novel's weak plot is regularly propped up with lopped off heads, flying arrows, broken necks, knifes in faces, and ninja karate chops that kill. I was waiting for Bruce Lee to make a cameo. Weak on story, strong on violence. It didn't hold my attention.NetGalley preview edition