Who can you trust when even the investigators are under investigation? When a young Asian student is strangled, Nickie Taroney is determined to do everything to help the police. On the case is Detective Terry Dedovic, a man with a messy past looking for redemption. But there is something about Dedovic that Nickie doesn't trust. Why is he running errands for a group of ex-drug squad police? Where exactly do his loyalties lie? When Nickie becomes involved in a risky sexual relationship, her worst suspicions are confirmed. The Dogs Are Barking is a thrilling journey through Sydney's underworld, a place where corrupt police and drug-dealers work together, and a place where the boundaries between good and evil are blurred.

Confident Sydney thriller, which recalls the reductive world of Jim Thompson...stark urban imagery, emotional ambush, balletic violence, and a cast of speedballs * Guardian *
Succeeds in turning the well-tended streets of Sydney into something resembling the seedier parts of Los Angeles * Sunday Times *
Love, loss and low-life in this provocative Australian thriller * New Woman *

John Dale was born in Sydney but grew up in Tasmania. Since returning to Sydney he has spent time in the Attorney General's Department, taught writing at university and worked as a doorman.