Moondogs

A singularly effervescent novel pivoting around the disappearance of an American businessman in the Philippines and the long-suffering son, jilted lover, slick police commissioner, misguided villain, and supernatural saviors who all want a piece of him. Mourning the recent loss of his mother, twentysome­thing Benicio--aka Benny--travels to Manila to reconnect with his estranged father, Howard. But when he arrives his father is nowhere to be found--leaving an irri­tated son to conclude that Howard has let him down for the umpteenth time. However, his father has actually been kid­napped by a meth-addled cabdriver, with grand plans to sell him to local terrorists as bait in the country's never-ending power struggle between insurgents, separatists, and "demo­cratic" muscle. Benicio's search for Howard reveals more about his father's womanizing ways and suspicious business deals, reopening the old hurts that he'd hoped to mend. Interspersed...