#43 [2021/CBR13] Killing Trail by Margaret Mizushima

I was looking for an audio book for a road trip when I found Killing Trail (2015) by Margaret Mizushima. I thought it was the perfect book for me: a suspenseful mystery set in a small Colorado town, and it's all about police dogs! Killing Trail is book 1 of 7 in the "Timber Creek K-9 mysteries" series.

Mattie Cobb has just recently returned from the training where she obtained Timber Creek's first police dog. Her dog, Robo, is a highly trained German shepherd who is always eager to work. He earns his keep on his first day by finding the body of a local teenage girl who had been murdered. Standing nearby is the girl's loyal Bernese Mountain dog.

Mattie brings the injured Bernese Mountain dog to the local veterinarian, Cole Walker. His daughter is friends with the victim and willing to help find her murderer. And thus the mystery begins. There are drugs, other murders, domestic violence, antagonistic coworkers, and more throughout this novel.

I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I found it kind of ridiculous. Mizushima did not do much to hide the killer's identity, so I was not very surprised by the ending. The characters also felt pretty one-dimensional and unrealistic. There were also a number of plot points that did not make much sense to me. First, this may be true, but I thought it odd that the police force had a cross country running race to decide who got to be in charge of the police dog. I would think that seniority, experience, and job performance might play a part. ***SPOILERS*** Second, the whole story centers around a guy who breeds Bernese Mountain dogs, but then he forces them to swallow balloons of drugs and use them as drug mules. Is this really necessary? He wasn't crossing any borders with the dogs. Also, the dog of the murdered teenage girl was found to have balloons of drugs in its system. Why would the murderer put drugs in the dog of the girl who was killed? Was he planning on taking her dog somewhere? Why would he want to be found with the dog of a murdered girl? It doesn't make any sense ***END SPOILERS***

On the other hand, I love dogs, and I love how many sweet, interesting dogs were in this book. Robo is delightful, and I really enjoyed hearing about his training and his work. I also thought the climax of the book really used Robo to his full potential and highlighted his strengths. In addition, my parents used to have a Bernese/Pyrenees mix who was so beautiful and sweet. I loved that this book also starred a sweet and loyal Bernese Mountain dog. I can only guess the author is a dog lover, and I thought she did great with her canine characters.