The Dogs could be marketed as "Jaws with paws", I suppose.

Certain dogs are being bred and trained and conditioned to create pure examples of the species, with all of their natural attributes honed to their maximum potential while erasing as much as possible the deleterious effects of millenia of domestication.

One of these dogs is separated from the institution doing this work and ends up in the care of divorced dad and professor Alex Bauer.

He bonds with the dog, Orph, but when Orph attacks his sons—not unprovoked, one of several gratifyingly gray areas—Alex can't keep him.

Orph ends up roaming around the mountains and puts together his own pack. They're only interested in survival but this puts them in conflict with humans and human interests and before long this conflict blows up into something bigger.

In some interesting ways this book is a little like First Blood, even with an almost supernatural link between the two main characters. (This was removed from the movie version of First Blood and the story plays better without it.)

Mundis knows a lot about dogs and conveys the information to the reader effortlessly. He handles violence in an unflinching manner, neither exaggerating nor understating, and the results can be gruesome and unsettling.

Sex scenes are less successful. Canine carnality is handled with what might be called aplomb but a human parallel comes off as contrived and not as convincing, as if sex and romance for the main character were contractually obligated. (Maybe it was.)

But this is a very engaging thriller that made this reader eager to keep turning the pages. The ending is satisfying and touching, even moving though the novel itself is not especially deep or even that memorable. The first line is "The sun was vigorous and the air tangy, the leaves were new".