I enjoyed this book, however I was able to figure out the culprit quite easily, which is always kind of a let down.
Third in the Timber Creek K-9 series with Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 Robo, working in a small town in Colorado. Cobb is called out with her dog to search for a missing girl near the high school, but tragically they find her murdered body nearby. The search for the murderer turns up several suspects, but within a few days another girl is missing - this time Sophie, the daughter of Cobb's good friend Cole Walker. The hunt goes frantic, but none of the suspects can be either eliminated or confirmed.
I find Mattie a very appealing character. She's smart and determined, but she's capable of taking advice when needed. She's got issues but she knows it and she's working on it, and she's not self-destructive. What I really liked here was in the hunt for Sophie, how Mattie is personally involved and the situation brings up her painful memories of childhood abuse. Mattie really starts to lose it, but she's able to keep it together and stay in the search. Her instincts send her down the wrong trail more than once and her superior officers need to bring her back on track. I liked how the mentally ill man was portrayed and the end result for him. I was less happy that Cole Walker's kids got handed another awful experience, Mizushima needs to give them a break. Great tension-filled book without any gory moments, some new interesting tidbits about how the tracking dogs are trained, and a bit of character development for both Mattie and Cole. I also liked the bit at the end, looks like Mizushima might expand the plot possibilities for the pair. Reading so many mysteries it is not unusual for me to immediately guess the villain, and I got it here about halfway through. A minor flaw is that despite scenes set on ranches or in the woods, I don't get much of a sense of place from these. Big plus: Robo the K-9 is shown as a real dog, a great working dog who loves his handler.
You could start here if you haven't read the previous two, but I think a new reader would get a little more out of the characters by starting with the first in the series. I will be looking for #4.
I find Mattie a very appealing character. She's smart and determined, but she's capable of taking advice when needed. She's got issues but she knows it and she's working on it, and she's not self-destructive. What I really liked here was in the hunt for Sophie, how Mattie is personally involved and the situation brings up her painful memories of childhood abuse. Mattie really starts to lose it, but she's able to keep it together and stay in the search. Her instincts send her down the wrong trail more than once and her superior officers need to bring her back on track. I liked how the mentally ill man was portrayed and the end result for him. I was less happy that Cole Walker's kids got handed another awful experience, Mizushima needs to give them a break. Great tension-filled book without any gory moments, some new interesting tidbits about how the tracking dogs are trained, and a bit of character development for both Mattie and Cole. I also liked the bit at the end, looks like Mizushima might expand the plot possibilities for the pair. Reading so many mysteries it is not unusual for me to immediately guess the villain, and I got it here about halfway through. A minor flaw is that despite scenes set on ranches or in the woods, I don't get much of a sense of place from these. Big plus: Robo the K-9 is shown as a real dog, a great working dog who loves his handler.
You could start here if you haven't read the previous two, but I think a new reader would get a little more out of the characters by starting with the first in the series. I will be looking for #4.
Deputy Mattie Cobb is more emotionally attached to her K-9 partner, Robo, than she is to anyone or anything else, and it's this attachment that makes them one of the best teams in crime fiction. However, in this third book in Mizushima's riveting series, Mattie is much too emotionally involved to be objective, and readers get to see her coming off the rails in her frenzy to find Cole's daughter.
One of the reasons why Mattie loses her objectivity is because she really doesn't understand mental illness-- one of the issues Mizushima handles so well in Hunting Hour-- and this stresses the importance of proper training for all police officers, not just the four-legged ones.
As in the previous two books, Hunting Hour is a superb look at working dogs in a police department, their training, what they're capable of doing, and how those capabilities could expand. The book also has the author's trademark action sequences that keep readers glued to the page, and the rich relationships between the main characters that make them so easy to care about.
Evidently my whodunit radar was in fine fettle when I read this because I spotted the villain immediately. Perhaps it's the work I did in a mental health institution so many years ago. I really don't know. Be that as it may, I enjoyed Hunting Hour, and was happy to see a small hint at the end that leads me to believe that Mattie and Robo could have new challenges in the future. I really think a new direction is needed because the series has been heavy on child jeopardy. After all, Cole's daughters have had more than their share of terror!
If you're a fan of small town Colorado settings, action that gets your adrenaline pumping, solid mysteries, wonderful dogs, and a fine cast of characters, you're in for a treat with Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek K-9 series. Start at the beginning with Killing Trail!
One of the reasons why Mattie loses her objectivity is because she really doesn't understand mental illness-- one of the issues Mizushima handles so well in Hunting Hour-- and this stresses the importance of proper training for all police officers, not just the four-legged ones.
As in the previous two books, Hunting Hour is a superb look at working dogs in a police department, their training, what they're capable of doing, and how those capabilities could expand. The book also has the author's trademark action sequences that keep readers glued to the page, and the rich relationships between the main characters that make them so easy to care about.
Evidently my whodunit radar was in fine fettle when I read this because I spotted the villain immediately. Perhaps it's the work I did in a mental health institution so many years ago. I really don't know. Be that as it may, I enjoyed Hunting Hour, and was happy to see a small hint at the end that leads me to believe that Mattie and Robo could have new challenges in the future. I really think a new direction is needed because the series has been heavy on child jeopardy. After all, Cole's daughters have had more than their share of terror!
If you're a fan of small town Colorado settings, action that gets your adrenaline pumping, solid mysteries, wonderful dogs, and a fine cast of characters, you're in for a treat with Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek K-9 series. Start at the beginning with Killing Trail!
