Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Reckless Creed by Alex Kava

 

First Line: Tony Briggs coughed up blood, then wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve.
 
Mysterious deaths aren't anything new. In Chicago, a young man jumps to his death from the thirtieth floor of a hotel. In Missouri, hunters find a lake covered in dead snow geese. In southern Alabama, Ryder Creed and his search-and-rescue dog Gracie find the body of a young woman who filled her pockets with rocks and walked into a river. Seemingly unrelated, right? But when FBI agent Maggie O'Dell and Ryder Creed begin to investigate, very disturbing facts begin to show themselves. These deaths are connected, and if Maggie and Creed are right, they're searching for potentially the most prolific killer in the United States. 
 
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Alex Kava's Ryder Creed series is one that I have to keep myself from gobbling up like a starving woman, and Reckless Creed is no exception. The stories are exceptional, and I love the relationship between Creed and his amazing dogs. Kava goes a long way into explaining just what remarkable talents dogs have. 
 
In an article about Creed and his business, K9 Crime Scents, a journalist talking about his success said, "They did it by rescuing abandoned and discarded dogs and turning them into heroes." In fact, as Creed's success becomes better known, more and more people are abandoning pets at the end of his driveway. This has the conflicting effect of making me angry and my being thankful that at least the dogs have a much better shot at a good life.

Published in 2016, having a story revolve around dogs that can sniff out diseases ratcheted up the tension and chill factor now that we are battling a pandemic. In Reckless Creed, we learn more about young Jason Seaver, a vet with a prosthetic limb and an often troublesome attitude, as well as the plight of other returned veterans who must deal with the search for proper-fitting prosthetics and doctors who seem to love to over-medicate. Creed has Jason training a young dog, and it's good to see them learning to work with each other.
 
If you enjoy exciting stories, fantastic working dogs, and a passionate main character you can believe in, Alex Kava's Ryder Creed series is the one for you. I'd suggest that you start at the beginning with Breaking Creed. It was one of my Best Reads of 2019

Reckless Creed by Alex Kava
eISBN: 9780698160699
G.P. Putnam's Sons © 2016
eBook, 336 pages
 
Law Enforcement/Working Dogs, #3 Ryder Creed mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

13 comments:

  1. I really like stories where, when dogs are featured, they act...well...like dogs. Dogs really are remarkable just as they are, and I appreciate it when the author writes them that way. Oh, wait - there are human characters in this one, too? ;-)

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    1. Yeah. They're almost as interesting as the dogs. ;-)

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  2. Ryder Creed and his dog, Gracie, are two of my all-time favorite characters. I love this series so much. :D

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    1. I do, too. In some ways, I don't know why I'm making myself read the series so slowly, but for some reason, I don't want to be left hanging by my fingernails for the next one.

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  3. Read two of these books. Not so enamoured of the plots, but love those dogs and their trainer's care for them. Learned more about how smart they are and their amazing sense of smell.

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    1. Yes, the plots are more "thriller" type, but when I'm in the mood for something like that, these books are perfect. I loved Creed's reaction to the government guy referring to "disposable dogs" in this book. Wowza!

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    2. If I weren't a believer in Harry Bosch's "Everybody counts, or nobody counts," I'd be right on the same page with you.

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    3. Well, I wasn't thinking of anything nefarious, but rather, a transfer to another department that does not have anything to do with animals, including chimps, who have been abused and discarded during "research."

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    4. The only thing wrong with that idea is that these government types can hop from department to department like fleas.

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    5. I could suggest a desk job at the Treasury Department, staying in the office and dealing with numbers, not people or their pets. Drown them with documents.

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  4. Like the sound of this one. Thank you for the review.

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