Mad Dog House by Mark Rubinstein

Roddy Dolan, a successful suburban surgeon, long ago left behind his past--one that nearly landed him in jail at 17. When he's approached by an old friend about becoming a silent partner in a Manhattan steakhouse, he's understandably wary. So he consults with his lifelong blood brother, Danny Burns.

Danny's convinced this "vanity project" is the perfect trophy to illustrate how far they've traveled. Certain he's buried his checkered past, Roddy joins in this venture with serious reservations. Danny is quickly sucked into the high-energy glitz of the restaurant, but Roddy is suspicious.

Amidst the glitter of New York's nightlife, amongst Mafia honchos and Russian thugs, events spin out of control and the lives Roddy and Danny knew are over. Hidden shady dealings drag them and their families into life-threatening terrain. Struggling with a monster he thought he'd buried, Roddy must make momentous choices, and none are good. But he has a daring plan…

Mad Dog House was an engaging book about a young man who turns his life around and becomes a surgeon.  He rises from the streets of Brooklyn to the Operating Room and suburbs of Westchester County thanks to his best friend, Danny’s mother asking his teachers to intervene when he’s arrested for grand larceny, and a judge who pays attention to the adults who believe he can be redeemed and offers him the chance to serve in the military.  And then, twenty years later, he and Danny invest in a restaurant with a buddy who shows up out of their past and find themselves mired in the same old muck—only worse—the adult version.  Somehow they have to extricate themselves…

The characters are well-drawn, the dialog is real and not stilted (yay!) and the action is well-paced.  Even though the version I read was seriously corrupted and made me crazy with capitalization issues that made me wonder if Mr. Rubinstein was aiming for stream-of-consciousness but not quite getting there, toward the end I actually forgot about the problems and devoured the book.  I’m grateful I was able to get my hands on an uncorrupted version and see this man’s writing as it should be seen.

Length:  328 Pages

Price: 

Kindle:  $2.99

Paperback:  $11.84

Buy Link:  http://thunderlakepress.com/buy-online

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.