This is a good police procedural mystery - a genre I don't often read. What drew me to this book is the canine involvement, and Margaret Mizushima did a fantastic job of ensuring that accuracy of relationship, training and work. This and the relationship between Mattie and Robo were the two most enjoyable aspects of the book for me. Great work!

The pacing of the mystery is good, although the whodunit part was too obvious. I ended up reading the last tenth of the book rather quickly as I had already figured it out. The characters were fairly interesting, and it was certainly a page turner (until the end). I will definitely look for other books in this series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for review.

This is the well-done third outing for Deputy Matttie Cobb and her K-9 dog, Robo. In their small Colorado town a young thirteen year old is found dead. Mattie, already having second thoughts about her vet friend, Cole, becomes even more anxious with the discovery of this girl. It brings up memories of her past that unsettle her and may even interfere with her objectivity and handling of Robo. Trying to hold it all together, Mattie’s world becomes even more fragile when Cole’s youngest daughter goes missing. With many suspects, Mattie finds it difficult not to jump to conclusions. This is a well-paced book with the extra bonus of insight into the use of canine dogs in police work. Recommended and awaiting their next adventure.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read another book in this series.

One of the joys of being part of the NetGalley book review community is finding great new-to-me authors. When it turns out to be the writer of a series, my happiness grows exponentially. Such is the case here; this is the third in the author's "Timber Creek K-9 Mystery" series. I did not read the first two, but I didn't need to in order to enjoy this one; the backstory tidbits included here are quite sufficient to bring me up to speed.

For the most part, I came to like Mattie Cobb, a deputy in Timber Creek and the star of the show. She comes from an abused childhood and has some baggage that at times gets in the way of her investigative skills, but in another way it helps her identify with the victims and their families. That comes into play at the start of the story, when a junior high student goes missing and in short order is found dead on a hill behind the high school.

There's another character I loved even more than Mattie, though - her K-9 partner Robo. He's a real sweetheart, and his tracking ability makes him invaluable in situations like this. But wait, there's more: Still another totally lovable character is a real gem - Cole Walker, the local veterinarian who is, off-and-on, Mattie's boyfriend. He's got two daughters who love Mattie (and vice versa), but also an ex-wife for whom Mattie is sure is still carrying a torch.

Their relationship is put to the test when, shortly after the first young girl is found and determined to have been murdered, Cole's younger daughter goes missing. From that point on, the race is on to find her - hopefully still alive - as well as identify and bring the killer to justice. Needless to say, Robo gets a good workout, performing like the trooper he is.

In short, this is a solid murder mystery with interesting characters that will leave you satisfied and your fingernails intact. Many thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. It's a sure bet I'll be watching for the next installment.

Deputy Mattie Cobb serves as Timber Creek, Colorado's K-9 officer. Her German Shepherd partner Robo's specialty is detecting drugs. In this third book in Margaret Mizushima's "Timber Creek K-9 Mystery" series, "Hunting Hour" Robo hones his already well-developed tracking skills to find two missing local girls. One of the girl's is the eight-year-old daughter of Timber Creek's recently divorced veterinarian Cole Walker and close friend of Mattie. Throughout the investigation Mattie struggles to keep her emotions in check and remain professional.

Mizushima reveals a comprehensive understanding of police procedures, K-9 training and dog behavior which adds to the believability of the story. Characters and storyline are well-developed. The reader feels intimately involved. There are no coincidences nor contrived situations to force events to work out. The storyline flows naturally and smoothly.

Besides being spot-on with the human characterizations, the dogs' mannerisms and actions demonstrate that the author is an animal lover, and she has the talent to use words to clearly portray animals' actions and responses. "Hunting Hour" is a great read on its own, but I plan to read the rest in this series because I enjoyed Mizushima's writing so much.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love fiction books with dogs as characters. A wonderful series, this book has all the elements needed to make a good mystery. The protagonist is not perfect and makes a few wrong decisions and that is great. You don't see this very often in a book. Usually the main character has all the answers. I loved the mystery and was a tad surprised by the ending. I would recommend this book to any mystery lover, especially ones who like small town police procedurals.

Hunting Hour has some mystery, some suspense and some very emotional scenes. Although I had my suspicions as to the killer, the ending was still exciting.. Being a German Shepherd breeder, there are many familiar traits to Robo, making the story even more enjoyable for me. The author does a great job expressing the feelings between dogs and humans. This is the first book of Margaret Mizushima's that I have read but it certainly won't be the last.

This book was wonderfully written, and showed what good team work does. Most importantly what a k-9 dog's capabilities can truly do and surprise you. Searching for people in different ways is helpful, depending on the situation; as robo the mighty k-9 demonstrated in this book.

A great book. This book has a good plot and I loved the well developed characters. I enjoyed this author's writing so much that I have bought the previous books in this series.

As an animal lover, I have to admit a bias toward Hunting Hour: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery, before I read the first page. But this third novel in author Margaret Mizushima's series, doesn't disappoint. In this story, Deputy Mattie Cobb and her canine partner, Robo, find the body of a missing girl. Then another girl disappears, and Mattie and her dog set out to find the kidnapper/killer. I fell in love with Robo; you can tell that Mizushima knows animals (and she runs a veterinary clinic and raises animals on her family's ranch in Colorado). This is a page-turner; I recommend it.

"The Hunting Hour" is the third in the Timber Creek K-9 series by Margaret Mizushima. I've enjoyed the first two books in this series and am very glad Mizushima could keep her characters and the story moving forward.

Deputy Mattie Cobb and Robo, her K-9 tracking dog, are involved in the search for a missing 8th grade girl. When the girl is found dead, the small town of Timber Lake is on edge. Then, the daughter of Mattie's close friend Cole Walker turns up missing. The volunteers fail to find any trace of the girl, and Mattie and Robo are at a loss as well. The potential suspects are plentiful.

I like this series because of the characters, the mountain location, and of course, Robo. I like that Robo is a working dog and the information about search and rescue dogs is fascinating. The characters are complex and interesting, and I like that Robo is not treated in an overly romanticized way. He is both comfort and companion to Mattie, but he is trained to perform and is, in his own way, a dedicated law enforcement agent.

I'm quite fond of these characters and Timber Lake and the well-crafted plotting of Margaret Mizushima.

Hunting Hour is the latest Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima. Although Hunting Hour is the third book of the series it is a stand alone story. In Hunting Hour the characters are so real you feel like they are your friends and you are visiting. Shortly into the story it becomes a page turner and difficult to put down. I was given an early copy to review.

Here is a review by Cheryl: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2017711755

The Hunting Hour is the third in this series, and I liked Stalking Ground, the first in the series, but somehow missed the second one and will have to see if the library has a copy.

Deputy Mattie Cobb and Robo, her K-9 tracking dog are involved in the search for a missing 8th grade girl. When the girl is found dead, the small town of Timber Lake is definitely on edge. Then the daughter of Mattie's close friend Cole Walker turns up missing. The volunteers fail to find any trace of the girl, and Mattie and Robo are at a loss as well. The potential suspects are plentiful.

I like this series because of the characters, the mountain location, and of course, Robo. I like that Robo is a working dog and the information about search and rescue dogs is fascinating. The characters are complex and interesting, and I like that Robo is not treated in an overly romanticized way. He is both comfort and companion to Mattie, but he is trained to perform and is, in his own way, a dedicated law enforcement agent.

I'm quite fond of these characters and Timber Lake and the well-crafted plotting of Margaret Mizushima. Must find a copy of the book I missed.

Read in April; blog review scheduled for July 24.

NetGalley/Crooked Lane Books.

Police Procedural. August 8, 2017. Print version: 320 pages.

Third book in Timber Creek K-9 Series
I read and enjoyed the first two- "Killing Trail" and "Stalking Ground".
This series is truly enjoyable!
I was looking forward to this book and I was thrilled to receive an ARC.
We have bought the first two at my library and I have recommended them - everyone has enjoyed them.

Mattie and Robo are still on mission to reduce crime in Timber Creek.
A young girl is found dead, another young girl goes missing, and time is ticking by quickly.

3.5 Stars (releases 8-8-17)

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick, fun read that kept my attention. When I got the book I didn't know that this was book 3 in a series. While there are a few references to previous storylines, I didn't feel that I was missing anything or lost in this story by not having read the previous two books.

The story follows Mattie, a sheriff's deputy and her K-9 partner Robo, living in a small town in Colorado. Mattie and Rob are asked to track a missing junior high student. They find the missing girl dead behind the high school. As they begin to look into the girl's promiscuous lifestyle and the older boys that "dated" her, another young girl goes missing. This time, it's close to home for Mattie.

The new missing girl, Sophie Walker, is the daughter of the local veterinarian that Mattie recently dated and grew to know and love. Mattie and Robo enlist the help of town locals, other deputies and additional K-9 dogs to search for Sophie, to no avail. The main suspects are a high school boy, a registered sex offender, the daughter of the dead girl that Mattie suspects of molesting his own daugther and a customer of the veterinarian that has been acting odd lately and interacted with Sophie the day before she disappeared.

For as risqué as the themes in the book are, the book is actually very tame. Many of the down and dirty details of the crime and dead girl's life are glossed over. Even the issues of Mattie's prior molestation by her own father are only hinted at and not dealt with directly. While the writing is well done and the story is engaging, I would consider this more "mystery lite", rather than hard-hitting, gritty mysteries, but it's still good. I recommend reading this book.

This book is the third in a series. I have not read the previous books. It wasn't at all difficult to pick up on who the characters were, but I suspect I missed a few nuances of the backgrounds and relationships between the characters and the details of the small-town setting.

Mattie and her partner Robo are a K-9 pair with the sheriff's office. The book begins with the near-immediate finding (by the dog) of a missing, unfortunately dead, 13-year-old girl. Mattie immediately suspects, about equally, one of the high school boys the girl had been seeing and the girl's father. It is quickly evident that Mattie has some serious childhood abuse baggage, the details of which are not gone into in this book, which clearly colors her view of possible suspects. (Because of the child abuse hinted at, I would caution prospective readers who might be triggered by such.)

Apparently in the earlier books Mattie has begun to develop a relationship with the local veterinarian and his two daughters. In this book she has backed off of this budding relationship, apparently due to the need to deal with her own past baggage. Then one of the daughters disappears, apparently kidnapped.

Robo is the true hero of this piece as his well-trained nose sniffs out the clues that lead the humans toward solving the two cases, the dead girl and the missing one. I learned more than I ever knew before about how trained sniffing dogs work, and it was quite interesting. As for the rest, I won't give anything away.... Overall, I enjoyed the book and had trouble putting it down. I gave it a 4-star rating because I did not find the human heroine particularly likable or compelling.

As Hunting Hour opens, Deputy Sheriff Mattie Cobb and her German shepherd partner Robo are called to help search for a missing teen, Candace Cobb. They find the girl’s body, an apparent victim of homicide by asphyxiation. There are plenty of suspects, including some older teens with whom she had apparently been sexually active but also her father and a strange reclusive bachelor who has been calling Cole Walker, the town veterinarian, daily about problems with his animals. But before Mattie and the rest of the local law enforcement can solve Candace’s murder, another young girl goes missing, and this case is very personal. It is Sophie Walker, Cole’s daughter. Mattie is still trying to work out her feelings for Cole, but there is no doubt that she loves Cole’s daughters, and she is determined to find the girl alive and to bring Candace’s killer to justice.
This is a fine enjoyable suspense tale, although many readers will probably see the solution fairly early. The reactions and interactions of the characters are very convincing, especially the ways in which Mattie’s personal life interfere with her professional objectivity and the honesty with which her co-workers discuss that with her. Some of the minor characters add a nice feeling of small-town warmth, like the motherly Mrs. Gibbs, Cole’s live-in housekeeper.
The best part of the book, though, is Mattie’s relationship with Robo, her loyal partner in work and life. A nice bonus were the little factoids about techniques for working with dogs like Robo, such as pouring water into his bowl at the beginning of a search to moisten his mucus membranes and enhance his scenting ability.
This is the first book I have read in the series. Enough background is provided that I had no trouble picking up the thread, but I also suspect that a lot of the suspense would be spoiled if I went back to read the earlier books. I recommend beginning with book one.
In the Acknowledgments at the end of the book, the author says, “Because of its mental health theme, Hunting Hour is a book of my heart.” Clearly this is a strong personal interest, but the treatment will probably be a bit heavy-handed for many readers; the book opens with Mattie having a therapy session with her psychiatrist as she tries to heal from the abuse she suffered as a child, and it seemed practically everyone was in counseling or psychiatric treatment.
As the book closes, Mattie’s relationship with Cole looks promising but is still unsettled, and the wounds from her childhood abuse are not yet healed. But Mattie knows another kind of therapy, one that seems to give her more peace. She curls up with Robo on his dog bed, and they both go to sleep.

A fun read, giving the reader some insight into how the police use dogs to help in the enforcement of the law. Loved the characters and the story didn't get bogged down by too much description or unnecessary fluff! Will definitely read more of this series.

<b><i>Doggie Detective!</i></b>I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Written by Margaret Mizushima and published by Crooked Lane Books in 2017, this is pretty good Young Adult (YA) fiction.

Mattie Cobb is a K-9 police officer in Timber Creek, Colorado. Her dog, Robo, has been trained to search out and find illegal drugs, and missing people. Although Mattie is the protagonist, she is not a very likable person. She jumps to so many false conclusions that she almost perfectly fits the stereotype of the police. She has been psychologically damaged by an abusive childhood in addition to traumatic events in her adult life. She is receiving therapy, as are several of the characters in the story.

Thirteen year-old Candace leaves her junior high school and never arrives home. It is Robo who finds her. Then, nine year-old Sophie, daughter of the town’s only veterinarian (Cole Walker) gets off her school bus and never reaches her home. There is a romantic interest between Mattie and Cole, but it appears unfulfilled. With one girl missing and another dead, the sheriff, and his staff (including Mattie) dedicate all of their resources to finding a killer and kidnapper, along with the missing girl. As can be expected, Robo solves the crimes and finds everybody being searched for.

The book contains a couple of minor inconsistencies, but is pretty well-written in spite of them. The story is an easy read — especially if you like dogs. Dogs feature prominently in this story. If you like dogs, and if you like YA crime fiction, then this is probably a book for you.

This is book 3 in the timber Creek K-9 Mystery series. I picked this story because it was a police dog book. Mattie is a police office working with her K-9 Robo searching for a missing girl that they find dead. When another girl goes missing it becomes personal as the family is very close to her. I didn't have any trouble following this story since I haven't read the previous books. Mattie has some issues with anger and trusting her instincts but she's working on them with professional help. This was a good police suspense story.