The Colour of a Dog Running Away - Review

I seem to be getting people at this blog after searching for "The Colour of a Dog Running Away", a book recently I read by Richard Gwyn. No doubt they are rather confused as to why Yahoo has sent them to me so I thought I'd write a quick book review (WITHOUT giving away the ending!) for these people. Glad to see the book is attracting interest though, it's published by a small publisher and not written by a particularly well known author. I first read about the book in The Guardian Review, a small article about the fact that Waterstones was un-characteristically championing this book for the summer.

Try as I might to understand the title, I've not found anything further to explain its meaning than a brief reference to it being a idiom in the pro-log. The story is set in Spain and is split into two parts. The first deals with a meeting of a mysterious girl and subsequent abduction of the protagonist (and the girl) by a religious cult based upon the ancient Cathar religion. In the second part, the protagonist, something of an anti-hero throughout the book, attempts to piece together what happened to him. This is hindered somewhat by the drug binges he frequently goes on and the fact he has a tendency to start the day off with a brandy and a beer for breakfast and continue like that. No doubt everything becomes clear in the end, more out of luck than anything.

The book was interesting, gripping even at times, although the ending left me slightly unfulfilled.