With non-stop action, snappy dialogue, low-lives galore and the grittiest elements present-day L.A. has to offer, 'Bird Dog' starts off with a sizzle as Harold Dodge and Marianna Perado meet and work their way through an intricate plot that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Marianna feels she's been cheated out of $3,000 when she traded in her Ford Escort for a Matsura to the guys in pinky rings and white shoes at Joe Covo Matsura down the road. She won't settle for any other car in the lot but her old Ford Escort and wants the deal unwound. A clerical worker at an outfit called Aerodyne, she calls for help on Harold Dodge, a chemical engineer in the same company, though they had never before met. Harold is instantly struck by Marianna's beauty and need. Having been a bird dog - someone who steers easy marks to an auto dealer - for the very same Joe Covo years before and the author of 'How To Buy a Creampuff', Harold knows a thing or two about cars. He leaps to Marianna's assistance but is stonewalled.
No softy herself, Marianna takes matters into her own hands, locating and reclaiming her car and the papers. But along with her papers, she unwittingly (and unbeknownst to Harold) takes a key piece of evidence which could incriminate some of the most notorious criminals on the block. As the dirty dealings, mistaken identities and misunderstandings escalate, Harold and Marianna become embroiled in a far more dangerous situation than they ever could have bargained for.
In the end, there are three corpses, cars bearing the blood of murder, cops with arrest warrants, and Philip Reed keeps us breathlessly guessing until the final pages how all of the pieces fit together and the what the ultimate fate of our heroes will be.
