Synopsis/blurb....

A veteran Marine and an ex-convict find themselves on opposite sides of the law in this propulsive new thriller from award-nominated suspense master and "damn fine storyteller" Owen Laukkanen (Kirkus Reviews).

Could your closest friend be a killer?

When a body washes up outside Deception Cove, Washington, Jess Winslow-once a US Marine, now a trainee sheriff's deputy-is assigned to investigate. But when she realizes it's "Bad" Brock Boyd, a hometown celebrity lately fallen from grace, things become complicated. The last person seen with Boyd was her own boyfriend, Mason Burke.

An ex-convict and newcomer in town, Mason is one of the only people who can understand Jess's haunting memories of her time in Afghanistan-and her love for Lucy, her devoted service dog. Finding one another in Deception Cove has been the best thing to happen to either of them in years. So Jess knows Mason could never be guilty of murder-doesn't she?

As the facts of the case point ever more squarely at Mason, Jess must face that everything she thinks she knows about him might be wrong. A thrilling sequel to Deception Cove, and a heart-pounding adventure all its own, Lone Jack Trail pushes Jess and Mason to a shocking confrontation and will test everything they've come to love and trust in Deception Cove.
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My take....

Second time around for me with Owen Laukkanen and his small Deception Cove community and main characters Mason Burke and Jess Winslow. Here, the fledgling friendship-cum-romance is put under extra strain when Mason is accused of the murder of another ex-con, the hometown celebrity Brock Boyd. Boyd has a bullet in his head and Mason still has the cuts and bruises from their very public brawl days before Boyd's death. When a witness puts the two together and the gun used in the killing is found near Mason's boat, Burke moves from a person of interest to chief suspect. His close proximity to another suspicious death cements that opinion in the minds of most of the on scene law enforcement and the locals, especially when his past his taken into consideration.

There's a lot to savour here, in particular the dynamics of the relationship between our two baggage-laden, lead characters (plus the dog they kind of share). Mason is an ex-con who owns his crime and is trying to forge a future with Jess and Lucy, the pitbull he trained while inside. In fact, despite fifteen years incarcerated, Mason is actually quite well-adjusted. He likes/loves Jess, but is enough of a gentleman to go at Jess's pace and to walk away if she decides there's no future for them as friends or a couple. Jess has her own demons. She's a PTSD suffering veteran and a widow to boot. She has trust issues and few people that she lets into her life. Jess is now in the unenviable position of juggling her job as local police with the fact that the man she may/may not be considering a future with, may/may not be guilty of a couple of homicides.

Lone Jack Trail - other main plus points ...... a decent pace without seeming rushed; a couple of murders to unravel; relationship troubles; some backstory to the first victim and our main characters, which serves well for those who might not have read the first in the series, but doesn't feel like deja-vous for someone who had; a decent support cast - eg. Rengo, Burke's only friend and another outsider, as a man living on the fringes of the community - and the sheriff and the other officers in the small town police force (names elude me); a man on the run and a manhunt; a conspiracy; some low level criminals - thinking bigger or not thinking at all; an amateur investigation, as well as an official one; a fistfight; a plausible motive for our crimes - initial and subsequent; a showdown and shoot out; an escape and a pursuit and a decent resolution.

Excitement, tension, action, interesting setting and a bit of a slow burner love story as the two main protagonists try and figure out if they have a future together or not.

Negatives - nothing especially. Maybe a slight stretch of disbelief as our man escapes arrest by an impulsive swim, though I suppose it wasn't totally outlandish. Far better than a convenient jet ski.

One other piece which kind of distracted me was the naming of some of the supporting characters, a few of which must have featured unnoticed in the first book of the series. I don't know whether I liked this element or not to be honest. I might be over-thinking things but I spotted ..... Joe Clifford, Ed Aymar, a Pruitt, a Winslow, a Mason, a Harper (or was it Jordan), a Hart (maybe), a Fetridge (a hat-tip to John Mc perhaps?)....... maybe some more, or maybe I just read too much crime fiction and everything in my brain just loops and circles back to other authors I've encountered? On balance, I think I liked this element, there's too many examples for it to be pure coincidence.

Overall 4.5 from 5

I'll be keen to see a third outing in the same setting with the same cast of characters, should the author choose to write one. In the meantime I have some of his earlier books on the shelf unread that ought to be given an airing. Deception Cove is the only other book I've read from Owen Laukkanen thus far.

Read - October, 2020
Published - 2020
Page count - 306
Source - Net Galley review copy
Format - ePUB read on laptop

https://col2910.blogspot.com/2020/11/owen-laukkanen-lone-jack-trail-2020.html

Thank you NET GALLEY for the advance

Does Owen L. write anything bad?

Even here with a Man, a woman, and a dog he stays back from the super women concept to deliver a great mystery from the Washington State local. His writing skills are on display not only in character dialogue as usual but in the lush descriptions of the peninsula!

More great work!!

The nitty-gritty: A carefully plotted mystery with lots of surprises, a vivid setting, and characters you’ll love to root for. And of course, a rescue pitbull mix named Lucy.

I was pleasantly surprised last year when I discovered Deception Cove, the first book in Owen Laukkanen’s Neah Bay series, so I was delighted to find the second book was just as good. Laukkanen sets his stories in a small, dying town at the northern tip of Washington state, a town where nothing much happens—well, except for the occasional murder, that is. The atmospheric setting and quirky cast of characters are what make these stories so irresistible, and add in an exciting murder mystery and you have the perfect page turner for a lazy afternoon.

The series features ex-Marine Jess Winslow and her service dog Lucy, who live in the small Washington town of Deception Cove. In the first book, Jess meets ex-con Mason Burke, the man who trained Lucy in prison (the prison had a rehabilitation program where inmates were given rescue dogs to train, how cool is that!). Mason and Jess meet when Mason gets out of prison and decides to see if he can track down Lucy to make sure she’s in a good home. By the end of that book, Jess and Mason have become somewhat of an item, although their relationship is held in check by Jess, who has a lot of emotional baggage to deal with, including the tragic death of her first husband, so she’s not quite sure she’s ready for another serious relationship. Jess and Burke found themselves in the middle of a drug deal gone bad involving a corrupt police officer, and barely survived the ordeal.

Lone Jack Trail picks up several months after the explosive ending of Deception Cove. Jess works at the local police station as a deputy, a job that allows her to use some of her skills as a marine and do good for the town at the same time. The quiet town is rattled when a local discovers a body washed up on the beach. Jess is called to the scene and identifies the dead man as Brock “Bad” Boyd, a local celebrity and hockey player who just got out of prison for dogfighting. The story jumps back two weeks before the discovery of the body when an unfortunate encounter between Boyd and Mason Burke ended in a bloody fistfight. Suddenly Burke is the prime suspect in the murder, and he knows his only chance of staying out of prison is to try to prove his innocence.

Jess is pretty sure Burke didn’t kill Boyd. He’s a kind man and did his time in prison without any complaints. But the fight started when Boyd showed an interest in Lucy, and Jess knows Burke would do anything to protect the dog, maybe even kill someone. With Burke on the run, Jess must decide what’s more important: following the letter of the law and doing her job, or helping the man she loves avoid being accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

Laukkanen does a great job of balancing all the elements of his story. Yes, there is a bit of a romance between Jess and Burke, but don’t let that turn you off the book. Mostly this is a murder mystery with a fair amount of violence, exciting chase scenes, and lots of danger and high stakes. But Lone Jack Trail isn’t just about the action. Laukkanen’s characters have depth and personalities that readers can relate to. My heart broke for Jess’s losses—first her husband and then her good friend who was tortured and killed in Afghanistan—and I was so glad she had Lucy and Burke as a support team. I was furious that everyone thought Burke was responsible for the murder, even though he’s proven himself to be an upstanding citizen. And most of all, I adored Lucy and her ability to bring everyone together. Even Lucy has a tortured past and is still dealing with trauma, so as you can see, this is primarily a story about coping and learning to live with your past.

Laukkanen has a way of writing sympathetic characters whether they’re good or bad. Even the bad guys—in this case the men involved in the murder—have an unexpected human side to them, which made the story much more interesting. I mean, a bad guy without any redeeming qualities is pretty boring, in my opinion, and the author adds some personal details to each one that made me feel sorry for them (well, just a little). Don’t get me wrong, these guys are hardcore violent and mean. But they are also fallible humans who have made mistakes, and I appreciated the fact that the author showed us both sides.

Surprisingly, the murder itself isn’t much of a mystery, especially since I suspected fairly early on who the killer is, and we find out definitively at about the halfway point. But the author does draw out the details of the murder for quite a while, so don’t worry because there’s still plenty of surprises in store. The big draw for me was finding out why the killer did it, and the author throws in some really good flashback chapters that delve back into the high school days of Bad Boyd and one particularly heinous incident that set everything in motion.

And because there is a dog in this story, you’re going to get my standard spoiler, which is that Lucy survives (although there were a couple of times I was really worried and in fact cursed the author and almost threw my Kindle through the wall!) However, I do want to warn sensitive readers that there are some discussions of dogfighting in this story, and while there aren’t any on the page, the characters talk about Bad Boyd’s past which involved his illegal dogfighting scheme. This is an upsetting subject for me, and I’m sure for many others, but please don’t let that stop you from reading this book. Meeting Lucy and seeing how much she loves Jess and Burke is well worth a few paragraphs of unpleasantness. 

Overall, I was so happy to be back in Deception Cove with these characters. Jess and Burke still have a ways to go with their relationship, so I’m hopeful that Laukkanen is hard at work on the next book. Most of all, I’m glad there are books like this that give me a break from science fiction and fantasy now and then, and if you’re an SFF reader like I am, I highly recommend this well written series if you need a break too.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Owen Laukkanen has found his magic cast: An ex-con with a conscience, a cop with PTSD in a corrupt house and a winning service dog who bonds them together. Deception Cove gave us a taste of the possibilities. The twists and turns of Lone Jack Trail take us to the next level. When a dead body washes up on the beach, our bad guy with a heart gets the frame and the fun begins. Owens rich characters and excellent plot are essential summer reading with a surprising conclusion that makes you want to know what Jess, Mason and Lucy will be up to next.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview Lone Jack Trail by Owen Laukkanen. This is the second book in a series, but it does stand alone.
It takes up where his last book left off (Deception Cove) with the two main characters - Jess and Mason.
Jess is now a police officer in Deception Cove and she lives with Mason. They are making the best of their lives and getting over their recent problems in Deception Cove.
While investigating the body of a man who just washed up on the beach, Jess is presented with evidence that leads to the belief this is a homicide. Overwhelming information presents her to start looking at Mason as a suspect. Jess is torn - but Mason has a past; he's been in prison. Could Mason possibly have murdered this man and when he takes off, Jess starts to question everything she knows and believes.
Great book - character driven with plenty of suspense.
4 stars.