Fallen Creed by Alex Kava

 

First Line: "You need to get out of the house!"

 

Ryder Creed and his scent dog, Grace, have returned to Nebraska to help FBI Agent Maggie O'Dell in an ongoing case, but they're interrupted when a rural postal carrier finds a black plastic bag in a ditch. Even seasoned investigators are shocked at what's inside the bag.

 

That same morning, a young woman has gone missing. Is her disappearance connected to the find in the ditch? Ryder agrees to search for her, but an impending snowstorm will put Grace's skills to the test. She's never worked in snow or cold before.

Maggie searches for answers, but it takes a while before she realizes that no one has heard from or seen Ryder since the snow began to fall. Maggie starts to fear that he and Grace have walked into the path of a killer.

~

If you're a dog lover who enjoys reading mysteries, you have to read Alex Kava's Ryder Creed K-9 series. She's created some high-octane thrill rides for one of my favorite casts in crime fiction. In Fallen Creed, she puts Ryder and his favorite scent dog, Grace, in the path of a snowstorm and a killer, and while I was anxious the entire time I was reading the book, I knew Ryder would come through-- and so would Grace. One of the most important things to know about Ryder Creed is that this former Marine K-9 handler can-- and will-- sacrifice his own well-being for that of his dogs. 

In this latest installment, Grace is showing her skills in detecting electronics, a skill for which many trainers use food as a reward. Ryder refuses to do this:

"Many of the dogs that found their way to K-9 CrimeScents had been discarded or abandoned by their previous owners. Some, like Grace, had been on their own for long enough that they were skin and bones, scraping for what food they could find. To make that daily meal a reward for work rendered was something Creed would not even consider. Every dog in his kennel, whether working or not, deserved to be fed."

You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals, can't you?

Fallen Creed has fellow dog handler Jason and Creed's sister, Brodie, loading up a truck with their dogs Scout and Hank and driving from Florida to Nebraska to help in the search. Both suffer from PTSD, and Brodie is experiencing a growing attachment to Jason-- one to which he seems oblivious. While I'm on the subject of attachments, Maggie O'Dell's attachment to Creed deepens as well. This is a well-developed cast that is so so easy to get wrapped up in. I care about what happens to each and every one of them, whether two-legged or four-.

Another thing that I love about these fast-paced tales is that I always learn something: how scent dogs can detect electronics, how human trafficking is more lucrative because drugs can only be sold once but humans can be sold over and over (makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?), or how social media sites are one of the biggest threats to those in Witness Protection. It is possible to learn while feeling anxious about fictional characters...

While you don't have to start at the beginning of this series to enjoy Fallen Creed, I would hope that you choose to do so. (The first book is Breaking Creed.) There is absolutely no reason to deprive yourself of reading so many excellent books!

Fallen Creed by Alex Kava

ASIN: B09LSLZLKX

Prairie Wind Publishing © 2022

eBook, 401 pages

 

Law Enforcement, #7 Ryder Creed K-9

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.