We've had romantic suspense series featuring police dogs
and search and rescue dogs, explosives sniffers and people
trackers. The natural progression to service dogs with the
armed forces, ushers in the Military
K-9 Unit series.
MISSION TO PROTECT starts alarmingly with a serial killer
striking on fictional Canyon Air Force Base in Texas.
Staff Sergeant Felicity Monroe is one of the personnel on
the revenge list of a man escaped from custody. Her boss,
Master Sergeant Westley James, and MWD (Military Working
Dog) German shepherd Dakota are detailed to guard her. The
task is made more difficult by another criminal, who is
suspected of killing Felicity's father. Someone was
responsible for a hit-and-run accident in the vicinity, and
OSI Agent Monroe was following up a lead of an Army
motorbike. Just possibly he was murdered to cover up this
case. A further complication is that someone on base may
have aided the Red Rose Killer, the escaped murderer who
has dispatched three of the personnel without difficulty.
Wow, this is complicated. Many personnel are introduced
early, with varying titles, not all of which I understood.
I also cannot figure how someone would kill two dog
trainers in a building full of over two hundred guard dogs.
And then he lets the dogs all run loose without coming to
harm. And these installations full of weaponry don't have
CCTV? Where I live, you can't walk down a road without
getting recorded, but nowhere in America has any cameras if
you believe these series.
Boyd Sullivan is the serial killer; he was tracked down by
a K-9 team previously and jailed. His calling card was that
he left a red rose with his victim, or sent one to a victim
ahead of stalking them. Hence the title Red Rose Killer.
Clearly this man had help to escape jail, and he is found
to have killed a cook and taken his uniform and credentials
to gain access to the base. Maybe he is lurking in plain
sight, just another uniformed man, or maybe he is hiding,
or has left the locality. This makes for a nerve-wracking
situation as Felicity is assigned to go around
photographing everyone and everything. Maybe she will catch
the man on camera, or maybe she will just be used by her
superiors as the bait in a trap.
I like that the deputy sheriff and her K-9 from the earlier
series are featured. We also briefly meet the base's bomb-
sniffing bloodhound, and see an electronics-sniffing dog at
work. Between working canines and loose-roaming dogs, the
book certainly has enough to satisfy any dog-lover. As for
romance, at first the tale is too filled with danger and
action, then the angst of an inappropriate situation
between two people who make the USAF their career -- and one
is the other's officer -- takes over the tale. By the end I
was quite wrung out with the emotional reactions going on
in this complex romance. Rather than beer-swilling, we see
Westley drinking root beer, and language is clean, with no
adult scenes, as usual for talented author Terri Reed.
Typically for a K-9 series, further books will continue the
hunt for the main villain with different authors -- Valerie
Hansen, Lynette Eason, Dana Mentink, Shirlee McCoy, Lenora
Worth, Laura Scott, Maggie Black - taking up the dog leads.
MISSION TO PROTECT gets Military
K-9 Unit off to a
cracking start.
Enter the world of the Military K-9 Unit A riveting new series begins! When the Red Rose Killer leaves his calling card for Staff Sergeant Felicity Monroe, she knows exactly what that means—she’s on his revenge list. Her boss, Master Sergeant Westley James, and K-9 German shepherd Dakota become her guardians, but they’ll have to act fast to escape the man who wants her dead.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy