Rating: 
Summary: Diamond Dogs
Review: Diamond Dogs is a book that once you start to read it, you don't want to put it down. From the first page you'll be hooked. The novel is filled with suspense and action. It is about a boy named Neil who hits and kills his classmate, Ian. Neil's father, sheriff of the town, tries to help his son and cover up what he did by burying the body. For three days there is chaos and suspicion through out the town about who killed Ian and where he was. I recommend this book for young adults who enjoy reading a book that is intresting and full of suspense.
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Summary: Enthralling Story from Page 1 on............................
Review: Diamond Dogs is a wonderful work of fiction you can't put down from the moment you read the first page. Alan Watt has written an exciting, non-stop story centering around a hit and run accident and its subsequent cover-up. A wonderful suspenseful tale of a mixed-up but loving relationship between father and son. High School quarterback Neil Garvin, a much-worshipped high school football star narrates the story. It's thru his eyes that the whole story enfolds, and you quickly realize that teenagers today are much more mature than we give them credit for. It's over the course of the next three days following the accident that Neil's life is completely changed when his father, the sheriff, helps cover-up the accident. We become a participant in the events that follow, whether we like it or not, and we get drawn into the complexities of small-town life, and father and son bonding. Whether it takes you a few hours, a day, or 2 days, this is a book you won't forget. A very promising debut novel from this author. An easy read that will keep you very entertained. Bravo!!
Rating: 
Summary: English Class Novel Review
Review: Diamond Dogs is an excellent novel about a father-son relationship and its hidden secrets. This novel begins with Neil Garvin, the quarterback for the Nevada High School football team, telling his story.
"It all started at Fred Billing's house," on a night Neil will never forget. A night Neil used his popularity and strength to put down and torment Ian, a boy he will never get a chance to know. Just as his father does to him, something Neil fears most of all, is that he will become, "Like Father, Like Son." Soon Neil will realize that his fear is no longer a fear, it is becoming a reality, after the night he killed Ian. Neil then begins to realize that if he doesn't want to become his father, he will have to have what his father doesn't have, which is a strong friendship, honesty, and compassion. He will not only learn secrets about his father's past, but what truly happened to his mother, who had picked up and left so many years before. "She loves you," said Neil's father, something Neil never thought was true. Because of this, Neil also learns and understands why his father master minded a plan to cover up for his mistake he made that night at Fred Billing's house. Neil and his father will soon grow to have a healthy father-son relationship after they turn themselves in and reveal their secrets to the world. Now Neil will continue to learn life lessons and grow from each and every mistake.
Overall I thought this was a good book. The story relates to something that can happen in real life. It also keeps the reader interested and keeps them wanting to read more.
Rating:
Summary: English Class Novel Review
Review: Diamond Dogs is an excellent novel about a father-son relationship and its hidden secrets. This novel begins with Neil Garvin, the quarterback for the Nevada High School football team, telling his story.
"It all started at Fred Billing's house," on a night Neil will never forget. A night Neil used his popularity and strength to put down and torment Ian, a boy he will never get a chance to know. Just as his father does to him, something Neil fears most of all, is that he will become, "Like Father, Like Son." Soon Neil will realize that his fear is no longer a fear, it is becoming a reality, after the night he killed Ian. Neil then begins to realize that if he doesn't want to become his father, he will have to have what his father doesn't have, which is a strong friendship, honesty, and compassion. He will not only learn secrets about his father's past, but what truly happened to his mother, who had picked up and left so many years before. "She loves you," said Neil's father, something Neil never thought was true. Because of this, Neil also learns and understands why his father master minded a plan to cover up for his mistake he made that night at Fred Billing's house. Neil and his father will soon grow to have a healthy father-son relationship after they turn themselves in and reveal their secrets to the world. Now Neil will continue to learn life lessons and grow from each and every mistake.
Overall I thought this was a good book. The story relates to something that can happen in real life. It also keeps the reader interested and keeps them wanting to read more.
Rating:
Summary: My review
Review: Diamond Dogs is an interesting book about a kid named Neil Garvin. He is your typical 17 year old high school jock. One night when he is out with his friends he gets a little bit drunk and ends up running over a classmate. His father being the town sheriff tries to cover it up in order to protect Neil, but just makes things worse. As the book progresses you learn about how Neil isn't the happy high school quarterback that everyone believes he is, instead he is a kid that is under tremendous stress and is about to snap.
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Summary: DIAMOND IN THE RUFF
Review: DIAMOND DOGS pulled me in from the first pages. It's about the complexities of a father-son relationship, with a compelling plot: Neil Garvin is the 17-year-old protagonist and he accidentally kills a classmate. His father covers the boy's tracks, thinking he is protecting his son's future. What engaged me is how easily the author lets us see beyond Neil's cool facade into his scarred psyche. On the surface Neil seems like a typical high school star quarterback who dreams of getting out of his crummy town on his "million-dollar arm". He drinks beers with his buddies and is sometimes a bully. Inside, Neil's a real mess. He misses his mother (who he thinks deserted him as a boy) and he can't communicate with his father (the town sheriff and Neil Diamond fanatic). When the accident occurs, it further distances Neil from his father until the situation implodes. DIAMOND DOGS reminded me of another book: BEFORE AND AFTER by Rosellen Brown also about a father covering up for his son. DIAMOND DOGS isn't as good as the Brown book because the story starts to stall toward the end, but Alan Watt is an excellent writer--a diamond in the rough--and I look forward to his next book.
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Summary: Novel Review For Diamond Dogs
Review: Diamond Dogs was a very good novel. It focused somewhat on what happens when you drink and drive. It also touches on a negative home life of a teenager and his controlling father. Most the novel shows what a teenager's life is like when he or she thinks that he or she needs to do something just to make someone else happy.
This novel is about a teenage boy named Neil. His father is the sheriff of Carmen, Nevada. Neil is at a stage in his lifer where his very confused and afraid of his father. He wants to break free from his father and everything else. Neil mostly wants to know what happened to his mother though out the novel. "I was three when she walked out on us. Just threw everything into a bag and split and all that was left was a photograph..."
"They didn't want me to drive home...Benny and Penguin stood in front of the car with their arms folded as if I was going to drive home drunk I'd have to drive through them first." When Neil leaves a party and drives drunk he runs over a teenage boy named Ian Curtis, the boy he beat up earlier at the party. The next morning Neil goes to the trunk of the car to bury Ian's body, but it's gone. His father, Chester, is the only other person who saw the body in the trunk earlier that night. Neil doesn't say anything and just keeps on going on with his life with this huge secret. Chester ends up doing a cover-up that goes well until the FBI shows up. After dealing with being afraid of his father and knowing the FBI is hot on his trail Neil begins to make different friends and begins to realize that he shouldn't be such a big bully to everyone just because of what his father has done to him. "I spent most of my waking hours being afraid of my father... I was the reason he had been abandoned and he hated me for it." Neil has to find the one thing that will end all of this, his mother.
The novel has a very good plot and keeps making you turn the page just to see what happens next.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing, well-written first novel
Review: Heard the taped version of DIAMOND DOGS by Alan Watt,
a disturbing first novel about a high school quarterback who has
his life turned upside down when he commits a terrible
crime . . . how he dealt with this incident, as well as his abusive father, made for an interesting story . . . the small town setting was very realistic, as was the son's relationship
(or lack thereof) with his father . . . some heavy psychological
themes and sex scenes would definitely NOT make this
reading for anybody but a mature teenager; i.e., it seems
to me that is more written for an adult reader.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing and well-written
Review: I could visualize every moment of this absorbing and well-written novel. I read it in one sitting. Alan Watt's sparse prose packs quite a punch. This is a finely-crafted, literary work that can be enjoyed by a wide-range of readers. Its plot is suspenseful and is played out by characters who are both disturbing and intriguing. I look forward to more work by this new writer.
Rating: 
Summary: This Dog Doesn't Hunt
Review: I found "Diamond Dogs" scrolling through Amazon reviews, impressed with the many thoughtful well-written raves. Sorry, I see it a little differently. The setting is well crafted. Carmen NV is a town where most parents are struggling to make a buck off of Vegas. Fathers who work the casinos by night watch their kids sports practices by day, few on their first marriages, family commitments limited by the impermanent nature of their worlds. Neil Garvin's father Chester is the heavy-drinking town sheriff whose facade of authority hides just another misfit. Neil tells the story of the boy he ran over, his inability to come to grips with what he did and how his father instinctively used his position and experience to cover it up. Telling the whole story through a 17-year-old's eyes, however, doesn't really work. Watt is terrific at capturing the frustrations of Neil's adolescence, life without the mother who left them and dealing with an unreliable father whose hold on his life is greater than he understands. But the story demands more, and Watt sees it. When he describes things of a broader, more adult perspective in Neil's voice, it takes on an artificial almost pompous tone. Chester's character flaws run too deep, even for Carmen NV. The father /son night in Las Vegas and showdown that follows set up an ending that is neither surprising nor satisfying. Watt is a talented writer, and I wish he made this a more credible story.
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