A K-9 Mystery…
The good folks at GoodReads must have caught on that, above all else, I love Animal Stories. Because most of the titles they’ve awarded me fall into this category.
So opening up my latest package and finding an Advance Readers’ Edition of THE FINDERS: A Mystery from Minotaur Books (St Martin’s Press) was a delight. That Golden Retriever on the cover was promising. And author Jeffrey B Burton keeps that promise.
I’ve always loved animal stories, including those of dogs. Even as a kid, I was captured by the wilderness short stories of Charles G D Roberts and Jack London’s THE CALL OF THE WILD. And I was given old books, mostly of the bygone Northwestern genre — many of them featuring a red-coated Canadian Mountie and his faithful dog, which was both his sled team leader and partner in crime solving. Like Jack O’Brien’s SILVER CHIEF: Dog of the North, the rousing adventure of Sgt Jim Thorne and a savage wolfdog…
Today the K9 story is thriving, from the new Citytv series HUDSON & REX (a Burhoe family fave!) to a growing number of Detective and Service Dog mysteries. They spread across the Mystery spectrum from Cozies to Thrillers.
THE FINDERS is the first in Jeffrey B Burton’s Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series.
Meet Mason “Mace” Reid, who trains cadaver dogs. He doesn’t like being called a “dog whisperer.” But it fits.
And his rescue dog Elvira — he calls her Vira — a talented Golden Retriever who becomes a mystery in herself.
As well as Delta Dawn and Maggie May, short-haired farm collies, sisters, lots of love. The alpha German Shepherd, a boy named Sue — Mace likes country music.
Officer Kippy Gimm, Chicago Police, a woman with her own mysteries, but worth uncovering. And she loves dogs.
And a serial killer. More than one, it turns out.
The puppy wasn’t supposed to be alive. Just a little pile of blankets and golden hair in a closed garage filled with car exhaust. But then the retriever staggered toward a disbelieving Kippy Gimm, who held the puppy and called her Honey Bear.
Ten months later the golden retriever, now called Vira, was on her first “find.” Searching for the body of a female murder victim. Mace Reid was amazed at the ease of his dog’s success. Then Vira did something that shocked the dog trainer — and resulted in his beloved young dog getting locked in the Chicago Animal Care and Control center with a kill order against her.
So begins a story of breathtaking twists and surprises. Unrelenting. And soon the hunted becomes the hunter, determined to kill the dog trainer and the woman cop — and the strangely perceptive Golden Retriever…
Five years ago, author Jeffrey B Burton was given the International Thriller Writers ThrillerFest’s Best First Sentence award for writing “Jennie chewed through relationships like a teething puppy.”
A sentence that combines his favorite genre, the Thriller, with themes that certainly haunt his latest published work: relationships and dogs.
Jeffrey developed his skills on numerous magazines, with stories in the mystery, horror, science-fiction and fantasy fields. Then made his bones with his Agent Drew Cady Mystery series.
THE FINDERS is dark and brutal at times. And lately I’ve gravitated to the Cozies. I’ve reached the age when I like sentiment and love in my fiction, as I do in my life. But — Doggone it! — I just kept turning the pages of this one until they ran out.
Yup, Five Stars. I loved THE FINDERS: A Mystery. I’ve never read Jeffrey before but I’m going to be seeking him out. After all, he loves Pomeranians and Beagles, or at least one of each. The book reviews are saying THE CHESSMAN is his best. Good place to start, eh?
And, yes, already waiting for the Mace Reid K-9 Mystery Book II.
Live Free, Mon Ami – Brian Alan Burhoe
Did You Like This Animal Stories Post?
THEN YOU’VE GOTTA READ WOLFBLOOD — MY MOST POPULAR ANIMAL STORY:
“I JUST READ WOLFBLOOD AGAIN FOR GOOD MEASURE. ONE FOR ANY WOLF LOVER. ENJOYED IT BUT WISH IT WAS A FULL LENGTH NOVEL.” – Gina Chronowicz @ginachron
“GREAT SHORT STORY! DOES REMIND ME OF CALL OF THE WILD, WHITE FANG…” – Evelyn @evelyn_m_k
A “stirring, miraculous and affectionate” tale in the Jack London Tradition of a lone Timber Wolf and its hunt for a place in the far-flung Northern forestlands. FREE ==> WOLFBLOOD: A Wild Wolf, A Half-Wild Husky & A Wily Old Trapper
WANT TO READ MY STORIES, BOOK REVIEWS & ARTICLES ON YOUR MOBILE CELLPHONE OR TABLET? Go to my Mobile-Friendly BrianAlanBurhoe.com…
Credits: Author photo above taken by Jeffrey’s wife, Cindy Archer-Burton. Book cover image and the detail at top of post from Minotaur Books. Can’t find cover artist’s name — if you know, please contact me.
THE FINDERS by Jeffrey B Burton: Mace Reid K-9 Mystery Police Dog Story Book Review
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