How are you supposed to react when a character in a book says they want to rob Led Zeppelin? It’s easy to get used to characters robbing banks, or multinational corporations, but one does not simply rob Led Zeppelin.

As the characters are all introduced, it becomes clear that they’ve all been named after various guitarists: Pete Townshend, Keith Richards, Pat Metheny, so on. It’s clever, considering the entire book circles around rock and roll.

It’s obvious the book is about a bunch of kids with famous guitarists’ names robbing Led Zeppelin; a band that the author, Jason Buhrmester, constantly reminds us robbed many musical ideas from older artists. The irony is difficult to miss.

            That could probably be said in less than 200 pages. “Black Dogs” draws itself out for hours. It gets difficult to follow. It’s hard to tell if the characters are talking about music or talking about their latest heist. Eventually, the plot gets even murkier. Soon, a dude that opens up safes gets involved, and he has a band of his own as well. The characters argue about the safe and their heist, and then the conversation suddenly turns to arguing about music.

            It’s understandable that the book is about the relationship between common thieves and music, but it’s hard to believe that a bunch of kids could pull off half of the heists they pulled. It boils down to the suspension of disbelief, which is something that “Black Dogs” never accomplishes.