The City That Barks and Roars by J. T. Bird: It Takes Four Legs to Walk These Mean Streets

The City That Barks and Roars by J. T. Bird Kindle Edition, 200 pg. 2020 Read: October 30-November 6, 2020

What’s The City That Barks and Roars About?

The book opens with an injured police detective hiding from those who injured him, focused on trying to survive long enough to be rescued while replaying the moments that put him in this situation. This is followed by some of his colleagues beginning the search for the detective, finding only plenty of reasons to assume the worst has happened.

Next, we see a young detective freshly transferred from a small, quiet town to the city to be partnered with the missing detective’s old, jaded partner. The newly matched pair lead the investigation into the missing detective. an apparent kidnapping of some local criminal figures, and the tie between the crimes. Along the way, while some camaraderie builds between the partners, the young detective gets exposed to the worst of the city, underground figures on both extremes of the social ladder, true depravity, and maybe (just maybe) a few upstanding citizens.

What makes this variation on the familiar-feeling story is this: all the characters are anthropomorphic animals who’ve evolved to a 1950’s America-like civilization. The missing detective is a Panda Bear, the kidnapped criminals are beavers, the primary detectives on the hunt are a king penguin and a red howler monkey—other characters are a polar bear, vulture, panther, leopard, lioness, and more.

Is this the Correct Medium for the Story?

I couldn’t stop thinking the entire time that a novel might not be the best way to tell this story, time after time, the visual jokes just didn’t seem to land the way they ought because Bird has to spend so much time describing them.

That’s the major problem of the whole novel—the descriptions chew up too much space, slowing down the movement of the story—and taking away from the impact of the jokes, images, or other moments.

You take this story, these characters, and put them in a graphic novel in a Spiegelman-Maus kind of style? It’d be dynamite.

The jokes are still there, the images are still strong and amusing—I just think this medium dilutes things, makes it less effective. With such a well and richly developed world, I’d just like that to come across better.

So, what did I think about The City That Barks and Roars?

The animal nature of the characters is secondary (or at least seems like it ought to be) to the story and who the characters are aside from that. As such, the book could use a little more depth. Enough space is devoted to the animal setting and characteristics that Bird really can’t give the depth of characterization or subtlety of plot that I’d like to see.

That said, this is some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen—ever—in a police novel. Bird went well above and beyond on that front, to deliver a unique and entertaining novel. From the original premise to the jaw-dropping final reveals, you won’t find Crime Fiction like this anywhere.

This would serve well as the beginning of a series, and if that’s the case, I’m in for a few more. If it’s strictly a stand-alone? Readers are in for a treat.

My thanks to damppebbles blog tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including a copy of the novel) they provided.