The Last of the Dog Team by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Of the few dozen Johnstone Clan books I’ve read, this is the oddest and entirely different from any of the other books. This is Johnstone’s version of Steinbeck. Not written as well as Steinbeck and with far too many crass parts, but the same feeling.

Before I tear this book apart, i want to note that the writing is very good, in the sense of writing characters ans settings. It’s the construction of and the elements of the plot that is the disaster.

This is a life story. Following a character from his teen years to death. The author has made every effort to make the story full of pathos and emotion, but to little avail. Mostly due to how the main character is developed. It’s an extremely clunky setup, mostly involving a teenager’s sexual adventures with a whole series of women. The sex, in a weird view of the human animal, is somehow to convince the reader that the main character is mature enough to become a killing machine. Besides hunting rabbits, there is no other sign the teen is anything more than a normal kid.

The other inane way the author tries to convince the reader that the main character is ready to be of an elite squad of military killers, is having all of the characters SAY he is unusual. No real basis for this claim. Except for seeing coldness in his eyes. Yet, the kid is never written to exhibit such cold behavior in the beginning. I could go on, but there’s more silliness to cover.

Extremely off putting about the story is that the title and gearing of the story would have a reader believe there would be all sorts of massive killing and battles and the like. Far from it. The main character’s sexual escapades fill the bulk of the action.

The way the sexual interactions are written are also off putting. All of the women in the book are to be fresh meat for the main character. They all fall for him and sex soon follows. Not a couple lines of sexual intercourse. Pages of details better suited for a pornographic magazine. There must be a good ten pages of sex just withing the first 35 pages of the book.

There are lots of other silly bits, too. But let me wrap this by writing how ridiculous the last few pages are involving the appearance of a hand full of the woman who fell under the main character’s sexual spell at a memorial service. It points out how excessive the use of women and sex are portrayed. To the point that I realized there were so many women, I didn’t remember all of the names.

This is a solid departure for a Johnstone book. The amount of curse words and explicit sex scenes are nothing I’ve encountered with Johnstone and wonder was he already employing ghost writers at the very early time of this book?

There is so much else to cover that is wrong with this book from loose ends to poor storytelling. But I think I’ve covered enough here.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 3 out of ten points.

View all my reviews