Book & Audio Review: Blind Search by Paula Munier

Blind Search
Author: Paula Munier
Narrator: Kathleen McInerney
Series: A Mercy Carr Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (November 5, 2019); Macmillan Audio (November 5, 2019)
Length: 345 p.; 12 hours and 9 minutes

Description: Former Army MP Mercy Carr and her retired bomb-sniffing dog Elvis are back in Blind Search, the sequel to the page-turning, critically acclaimed A Borrowing of Bones.

It’s October, hunting season in the Green Mountains—and the Vermont wilderness has never been more beautiful or more dangerous. Especially for nine-year-old Henry, who’s lost in the woods. Again. Only this time he sees something terrible. When a young woman is found shot through the heart with a fatal arrow, Mercy thinks that something is murder. But Henry, a math genius whose autism often silences him when he should speak up most, is not talking.

Now there’s a murderer hiding among the hunters in the forest—and Mercy and Elvis must team up with their crime-solving friends, game warden Troy Warner and search-and-rescue dog Susie Bear, to find the killer—before the killer finds Henry. When an early season blizzard hits the mountains, cutting them off from the rest of the world, the race is on to solve the crime, apprehend the murderer, and keep the boy safe until the snowplows get through.

Inspired by the true search-and-rescue case of an autistic boy who got lost in the Vermont wilderness, Paula Munier's mystery is a compelling roller coaster ride through the worst of winter—and human nature.

My Thoughts: The second Mercy Carr and Elvis mystery takes place in the Fall in the lovely state of Vermont. It's hunting season and only a fool goes out into the woods without orange clothing. When Mercy heads off in the woods after Elvis takes off when retrieving arrows, Mercy doesn't follow until she kits out and grabs Elvis's orange vest.

She finds Elvis with billionaire Daniel Feinberg's hunting party where they have treed a bear with the aid of an elkhound pack. Then Elvis and the elkhounds take off and the next thing they find is a young woman who has been shot in the heart with an arrow. It turns out that she was one of Feinberg's guests who hadn't yet arrived when the hunters went out. 

Mercy doesn't think that the death was a hunting accident, but there are a number of possible explanations. It seems the Vermont woods are filled with poachers, gun runners, and drug runners. But that doesn't mean that she isn't going to look into the lives of Feinberg's guests to see if any of them had a reason to want the young woman dead.  

Mercy teams up with Forest Ranger Troy Warner and his dog Suzie Bear to look into the murder despite being told to back off by Detective Harrington. They do have a witness who might have relevant information, but Henry is nine, autistic, and nearly nonverbal.

But someone saw Henry and wants to eliminate the possibility that he will share what he saw. Mercy and Elvis are determined to keep Henry safe from all hazards. 

I liked the growing relationship between Mercy and Troy except Troy isn't as divorced as Mercy thinks he is. I also liked Mercy's relationship with her dog Elvis which is changing as they both ger over the death of Mercy's fiance who was also Elvis's handler. They are becoming quite a team.

This was a fun story for fans of cozy mysteries that also have dogs with big personalities. 

Favorite Quote:

Funny how grief waxed and waned. It faded away until you thought you were safe and then a random word, sound, gesture brought you right back to the brink again.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.