ARC Review: Hunting Hour by Margaret Mizushima

Hunting Hour
Author: Margaret Mizushima
Series: Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (August 8, 2017)

Description: Deputy Mattie Cobb is in a dark place and has withdrawn from Cole Walker and his family to work on issues from her past. When she and her K-9 partner Robo get called to track a missing junior high student, they find the girl dead on Smoker’s Hill behind the high school, and Mattie must head to the Walker home to break the bad news. But that’s only the start of trouble in Timber Creek, because soon another girl goes missing―and this time it’s one of Cole’s daughters.

Knowing that each hour a child remains missing lessens the probability of finding her alive, Mattie and Robo lead the hunt while Cole and community volunteers join in to search everywhere. To no avail. It seems that someone has snatched all trace of the Walker girl from their midst, including her scent. Grasping at straws, Mattie and Robo follow a phoned-in tip into the dense forest, where they hope to find a trace of the girl’s scent and to rescue her alive. But when Robo does catch her scent, it leads them to information that challenges everything they thought they knew about the case.

Mattie and Robo must rush to hunt down the kidnapper before they’re too late in Hunting Hour, the third installment in critically acclaimed author Margaret Mizushima’s exhilarating mystery series.

My Thoughts: In this episode, Mattie and her dog Robo are called out to look for a missing junior student. They find her dead on Smoker's Hill behind the high school. the girl was asthmatic but her posed body seems to indicate that she wasn't alone when she died. The investigation triggers some of the issues that Mattie is dealing with when she suspects the girl might have been abused by her father. Mattie was abused by hers when she was a small child and is still working through that and a number of other trust issues.

Mattie's issues have caused her to pull away from veterinarian Cole Walker and his girls. She fears closeness and is still concerned that he loves his ex-wife despite her abandoning the family. When Cole's youngest daughter Sophie also goes missing, the stakes are raised to find her before she ends up like the girl on Smoker's Hill.

There are a number of suspects in the murder including the high school football players who were taking advantage of the girl. There was also the mentally ill man who had frequently brought his animals to Cole's practice for treatment. Robo found Sophie's scent on his truck. Then there were the convicted sexual predators who decided to plan a fishing trip in Mattie's town.

This story was fast-paced and engaging. The details about working with search dogs added interest to the story. I liked Mattie's relationship with her dog. I liked the way the tension built in the story. The fact the the police worked on well past the point of exhaustion to find the girl was realistic. Cole's relationship with his ex-wife was clarified in this story. This is the third story is this series and I am looking forward to more.

Favorite Quote:

She read the story left by the indentation is the greass and choked out words. "I think someone came down the lane behind her, turned in here to switch directions, and then left the property."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.