Bookreview: Hanging Falls – Fast-Paced K-9 Mystery

Hanging Falls

By Margaret Mizushima

Deputy Mattie Cobb and her canine partner Robo are about to meet Mattie’s long-lost sister and grandmother. Taken as a child, Mattie and her family did not know how to find each other until she registered her DNA on an ancestry website. As luck would have it, her sister also registered on the site, linking them at last. She is anxious, but excited to reconnect.

The day before Mattie plans to fly out to see them, she has the misfortune of finding a body while on a hike at Hanging Falls. As always, her instincts and training kick in. Mattie and Robo are needed to track the possible killer. One body leads to another in this complicated case. Are they related or is this just a coincidence? She is torn between her past and the present. Thankfully her family decides to drive to see her so that she can reacquaint herself with them while she and Robo continue to work the case.

The deeper she delves into the murders, the more she needs the help of her colleagues as well as her boyfriend, the local veterinarian, Cole Walker. Soon they become suspicious of an oddly strict religious group, but evidence also points to others in the community. Now Mattie divides her attention between solving the murders and learning about her past from the only people who know what really happened to her and her family when she was a child.

This fast-paced mystery will have you reading “just one more chapter” because it cannot be put down. The lives of the characters are interesting and realistic. There are several suspects in the crime that will keep you guessing until the final chapters.

Reading a new book in a beloved series is like catching up with old friends. Ms. Mizushima does a fantastic job pulling in information from the previous books in the series so that readers that have not read them are not lost. While I feel Hanging Falls works well as a standalone novel, I encourage readers to check out the previous books in the series. You will love all of them – I certainly do!

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy from publicist Maryglenn McCombs in exchange for a fair and honest review. Copyright © 2020 Laura Hartman