Gathering Mist
Timber Creek K-9 Mystery Book 9
Margaret Mizushima
Crooked Lane Books
October 8th, 2024
Gathering Mist by Margaret Mizushima uses the setting of the Pacific Northwest to create a suspenseful story.
“The idea for the story came from the cover. This was going to be the cover for book 8, but I realized it would not work. The setting for that book was in Colorado, but the cover was the Pacific Northwest. My husband and I had just moved to Washington State. Because I saved the cover, I decided to write a story surrounding it.”
The setting had a dense forest, chilling rain, a heavy mist, and a rugged terrain. There is also an interesting aspect where the working dog, Robo, was not just a search and rescue dog but also a K-9 officer who had skills that SAR dogs usually do not have.
In the plot, Deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 partner, the German shepherd Robo, are summoned from Timber Creek, Colorado, to Washington state for an ultrasensitive search-and-rescue mission. With only a week left before her wedding, Mattie is hesitant to leave Timber Creek, but her K-9 partner Robo’s tracking skills are needed, so she decides to go.
“In Timber Creek time it has been about eighteen months since Mattie and Cole had met each other. In the beginning Mattie was remote, withdrawn, and did not trust others, and did not have many friends. When it comes to her work, she is a perfectionist and she has a great sense of justice, right and wrong. She is all business when it comes to her work. But she has fallen in love with Cole’s two girls before she has fallen in love with him. She is very tender hearted when it comes to family and children. Her goal is to have a family. By marring Cole, she can have children and a family, which occurs in the last chapter of this book.”
River Allen, the 9-year-old son of actress Chrystal Winter, has wandered away from the movie set where his mother is filming a new movie. The search for him takes place in the region east of Olympic National Park.
After one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, Mattie’s fiancé, Cole Walker, suspects poison. Fearing for Mattie’s and Robo’s safety, Cole joins the search and rescue team as veterinary support. Mattie now suspects something more sinister than a lost child is at play. Plus, after Robo finds two children’s graves the searchers realize something more dangerous may have happened and the question is what really happened to River.
“I had training in search and rescue a few years ago. I was motivated to have trained dogs to find our children had they ever got lost. We lived near the mountains. I really wanted to write a search and rescue story. I decided to take Mattie and Robo to a new territory and with an unfamiliar environment. Hunting dogs are bred to pick up the smell of the birds from the air. When we were in search and rescue training, I observed different dogs that could track through the scent in the air. It is interesting to watch dogs track in two different ways, either nose to the ground or nose to the air. I wrote how Robo could do both. I based it on one of our dogs, Ilsa, a Rottweiler. Robo’s qualities besides search and rescue include sensing children’s distress, backtracking, smell children’s unique odor, can smell a fugitive based on their fear and stress that they give off, and is trained to only listen to Mattie when working. He is also very protective of Mattie but is very well socialized with children.”
The next book will also have a sinister plot. It will come out in the Fall 2025. The setting is back in Colorado. The plot has a close friend of Cole and Mattie dying with something sinister at play.
This plot is very interesting, engaging, and intense. The red herrings, twists and a shocking ending makes for a wonderful read.
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