STRAY DOGS

"Richard John Parfitt has been writing taut, tense, economical rock songs since he lived in the same block of flats as my grandmother in Croesyceiliog South Wales. His band the 60ft Dolls ruled the roost in my hometown back then. Now he writes taut, tense, economical, prose and this novel is as fierce, catchy and full of hooks as any of his brilliant songs. — Jon Langford, The Mekons ""'I told em we were no thrill-kill cult and that we were just ordinary dictionary salesmen on a delivery job gone wrong.' Richard John Parfitt's blood-soaked fever dream of Toronto teens at the turn of the 80s reads like Taxi Driver turned upside down; the street kids remix.' — John Williams, author of The Cardiff Trilogy ""Immediately after finishing this novel I knew it would haunt me for a long, long time. It's a compelling and driven picaresque of great humour, beauty, horror and intense emotional weight, acutely attuned to the world's hopes and heartbreaks. Fantastic, in several senses''- Niall Griffiths, author of Broken Ghosts, winner 2020 Wales Book of the Year Stray Dogs is a raw, visceral and hard-hitting read, with a distinct and memorable voice. It takes readers deep into the gritty depths of the city and into the minds and hearts of the characters we find there - Emma Hooper, author of We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky ""I had  a blast reading Richard John Parfitt's debut novel, Stray Dogs, It's grimly humorous, with several laugh-out-loud moments. Entering territory frequented by Cormac McCarthy, Scott Phillips, and the Coen Brothers, I was darkly entertained from start to finish."" — Gavin Cologned-Brookes, author of Rereading William Styron and American Lonesome: The Work of Bruce Springsteen"