Tracking Game
A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery #5
Margaret Mizushima
Crooked Lane Books, November 2019
ISBN 978-1-64385-135-8
Hardcover
Deputy Mattie Cobb is at a local gathering enjoying an evening with Cole Walker the local vet, when there is an explosion nearby. As they rush to the site they find a van on fire and a dead body, a body with two bullet holes. The body is that of Nate Fletcher married to the daughter of Doyle Redman from a nearby ranch.
Who would want to kill Nate Fletcher? As the investigation quickly gets underway Mattie and her K-9 partner Robo make a few important discoveries including finding the gun used to kill Nate.
As the local police, along with Mattie and Robo focus on unravelling the mystery, another body turns up. The case grows ever more complicated as questions regarding possible drug running and other dangerous activities slowly surface.
This one started with a Bang, literally. The pace slowed somewhat during the investigation. Mattie is dealing with some personal issues regarding her relationship with Cole, but she determinedly sets those aside to focus on finding the perpetrator or perpetrators. There are a number of viable suspects and the mystery takes an unusual turn that sends Mattie, Robo and Cole on a tracking mission up into the mountains.
This is the fifth book but my first introduction to the Timber Creek Series, and even though there is back story regarding Mattie’s past referred to in the book, I didn’t feel I was missing too much and enjoyed meeting Mattie and her very smart K-9, Robo.
I was drawn in reading how Mattie and her K-9 worked together. The author also vividly captured the beauty as well as the danger of the Timber Creek landscape.
Respectfully submitted.
Reviewed by guest reviewer Moyra Tarling, January 2020.
Buried Under Books 