Nancy Kress’s Dogs is a cross between The Stand, Cujo, and a terrorist thriller. There is even a touch of Needful Things near the end of the book. That being said, Dogs is not a supernatural thriller, like Stephen King is known for, but more of a psychological one.
Dogs start going crazy and viciously attacking everyone, including their owners, in a small Maryland town. The locals suspect a virus, and when the Feds gets involved, the town is closed off and all dogs rounded up or killed. These practices throw the town into a turmoil and sides are formed with deadly intent.
Meanwhile, an ex-FBI agent has a lead on who might have started the virus. As an ex-agent, she has no status, but her search takes her overseas and puts her in deadly peril, as well as pitting herself against her old agency.
Dogs is a complex thriller, focusing not only on terrorism and federal agencies, but also on people who love their dogs. It explores how far people will go for their pets, as the line between right and wrong becomes blurred. Read the book, and you will become embroiled in the issue yourself. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reading more Nancy Kress in the future.