Hunting Hour: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima

Mattie and her dog, Robo, are called out to look for a missing junior high girl.  They find her.  She's dead.  But the search for her killer gets really complicated.  The thirteen year old girl was sleeping with high school guys.  The father has no alibi.  There are sex offenders in the area.  How many more suspects will turn up?

Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 8th.

The relationship between Mattie and her dog is special.  It makes reading the author's mysteries even more enjoyable.  I also enjoy Mattie's almost romance.  She's been abused in her past and has trouble trusting men.  She also has trouble letting her painful past go.  But she's working on it.

As they keep tracking down answers about the people in the suspect line, another girl is abducted.  This one Mattie knows well, it's her boyfriend's youngest girl.  She is determined to get her back alive it it's at all possible.

There's emotional trauma everywhere, Mattie has trouble setting aside her own emotional problems when the cases seem to similar to her experiences, Cole is going nuts because his daughter is missing and he should have been there when she came home, and the whole time all this playing out, they keep investigating.  There's an old man who has paranoia problems (he's not taking his medicine) and they suspect him for a while because the girl has been in his truck.  She went there to pet his dog but didn't tell her dad about it.  He's the one that ultimately helps them find the girl.  He reports he heard the deer screaming but Robo smells her scent further down the road.  Off they go, they are going to find Sophie!

This was a fascinating mystery with a lot of psychological factors thrown in.  I enjoy Ms. Mizushima's writing and how she shapes her stories.  She also makes her characters human.  If you haven't read her work before, give it a try.  I bet you'll follow this series, too.