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SMOKY MOUNTAIN TRACKS
by Donna Ball
Signet, March 2006
272 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451218027


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It's 3am and the phone rings. Raine Stockton, awakened from sleep, knows this is not a good thing. The call is from her ex-husband, deputy sheriff Buck Lawson. A woman and a child are missing. Although Raine insists that her dog Cisco is not well enough trained to search, Buck insists that she is the closest person, so she must do it. Since a child is involved, Raine agrees.

Cindy and Angel Winston are missing. Cindy had been hanging out with Luke Pickens, a violent man, and it appears that all of them have disappeared. Only a child's slipper with some blood on it has been found.

Raine is still mourning the loss of Cassidy, her favorite dog, who died at the age of 13, after a successful search and rescue. Raine has not had the heart to fully train Cassidy's two year old descendant Cisco. But he is willing and intelligent, so they start to search. Cisco leads them to an abandoned cabin, which they scour thoroughly to no avail. They continue to track until Cisco finds a body, the bloody body of Luke Pickens.

As a first novel, this is a fine attempt. It is reminiscent of the bloodhound novels written by the late Virginia Lanier, but instead of an abusive ex-husband, necessitating a fortress-like enclosure, we have a womanizing ex-husband who still loves his wife and tries to work closely with her.

There is a bit more story to SMOKY MOUNTAIN TRACKS than there was in the Lanier books. As I remember, those were just one search after another. In this book, Raine searches for the missing child, even after the mother turns up, until she finds the truth. Dogs and a hint of romance -- what more could one ask for?

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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