THE FINDERS

4 stars out of 5

June seems to be going to the dogs. Well, at least in my book; coming off reading another wonderful "Chet and Bernie" mystery by Spencer Quinn, I dived right into this one, which also focuses on unbelievably intelligent canines. But in this case, they're honing in on dead bodies.

That alone attracted me to this book, which came to me as a pre-publication review copy from NetGalley (thank you very much). But other things were intriguing as well; for instance, dog trainer Mason Reid - Mace to his friends - is a fan of country music, as am I. His main pooches have names like Maggie May, Delta Dawn and, the newest pup, Elvira. The name of another lead character, Chicago police officer Kippy Gimm, made me chuckle as well; when our daughter Christine Elizabeth was just starting to talk, the best she could do with her own name was "Kippy Libilip" - so for two or three years, Kippy it was (for the record, though, I do have a bit of a problem taking any grown-up named Kippy very seriously.

Mason and Kippy meet up at the scene of an apparent suicide by carbon monoxide, and they find what may have been an unintended victim; a golden retriever puppy that's unconscious but miraculously still alive. No surprise, but Mason takes the pup to raise, dubbing her Elvira, or Vira for short. It should be noted, also no surprise, that Mason - who's coming off the death of a favorite pooch and a marriage turned sour (I'm not sure which he mourns more) - takes quite a shine to the aforementioned Kippy.

Mason begins training Elvira as a cadaver dog, and she proves to be noseworthy in stellar fashion. In fact, she tackles - literally - a murder suspect she sniffs out in a crowd of bystanders, seriously injuring him and landing herself on the must-be-put-down list. When the authorities determine that the man was perhaps the serial killer they've been trying to nail for years, strings are pulled to keep Elvira safe.

Further investigation determines that Elvira's victim isn't working alone and a serial killer remains on the loose. The rest of the book focuses on the chase to find him (or her) as well as the killer's determination to put down Mason, Kippy and that pesky Elvira. It's an exciting chase to the finish, to be sure. My only concern is that while I enjoyed learning more about the superiority of dogs' brains and sense of smell, the detail was a bit heavy-handed. Since this is the first of what I believe is a series, I can't imagine there would be anything left to reveal in future episodes without repeating much of what's been said here. But in any event, I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and already I'm on the scent of another. Soon, please?

The Finders by Jeffrey B. Burton (Minotaur Books, June 2020); 288 pp.