Review: One of the year's best, most thought-provoking thrillers
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 23, 2013
`When Dogs Could Talk' is incredibly emotionally and intellectually satisfying, and it is also deeply entertaining in the same palpable way you cannot look away from dystopias and train wrecks--and you will love every moment of reading it.`When Dogs Could Talk' is about reporter Charlie Harris, who is jaded from witnessing too many things a human being shouldn't see. He arrives at yet another grisly murder scene. But what seems like routine coverage quickly turns out to be something larger and complex--for one, you don't just kill the Chief intelligence Officer then leave a mysterious "signature" for nothing--clearly, as Harris realizes, he is about to dip his arm into a box full of vipers, and he's about out of choices. From there Harris embarks on a year-long journey into a nation's worsening madness to find some answers--he meets the agents of different political interests and factions, people from all walks of life, against the backdrop of a country spinning out of control, risking his own career, his friends and his very life--and even then Harris is not sure if the answers he finds, if there's any, can actually provide a solution, if not closure.Wellhauser's writing must be highly commended--he writes with that steady, confident hand in crafting a world that is too disturbing, yet too familiar. He knows exactly when and how to hook you in, like an expert, seasoned performer, yet he doesn't forget the deeper, weightier gravitas that makes a book like this emotionally and intellectually resonate with readers--you quickly realize, a few chapters into the book, that you're not reading something crafted for cheap thrills, but also to make you think and feel the larger truths.I cannot recommend `When Dogs Could Talk' enough--it is an intelligent, meticulously crafted tale about the times in which we live. Definitely a must-read for everyone who loves their fiction intelligent enough and extremely entertaining to be worthy of their time. If I could give this more than the maximum of five stars, I would.