Allan Carstairs is the animal control officer in wintry
Conard County, Wyoming. His colleague Kelly Noveno and her
Belgian Malinois are the K9 police team called upon when
three young women go missing from a car that skidded off the
road. Did they take a ride with a stranger? Did they walk
and come to grief? All anyone knows is that overnight they
went MISSING IN CONARD COUNTY.
The three missing ladies are high school seniors. Jane
Beauvoir, Chantal Reston, and Mary Lou Ostend were out
socialising at New Year's, but the bar owner swears they
weren't drinking. I picked up the urgency and worry from
the characters as a search got under way. Soon I was
concerned about the students too, and I was hoping Kelly's
dog Bugle would get their scent. Allan seemed like such a
nice guy as he stood guarding the crashed car. His own work
has been dropped to give the missing person case priority.
People around here know everyone; they look out for folks.
As a snowstorm descends, the cold makes everyone hungry and
tired. Over a late meal, Kelly and Allan chat and swap
background stories.
This tale is so realistic. I found it very easy to read and
became absorbed in the hunt. As time passes, the searchers
realise that the girls must be indoors - or dead from
exposure. Kelly finds thoughts of them haunting her. Allan
meanwhile is recovering from a spell of military service,
and prefers animals to people. Though he'll make an honest
exception for the brave cop in her layers of winter
clothing, with her smart, protective dog.
The adventure becomes gripping as clues are scarce, and the
weather is even more extreme in the days to come, hitting
thirty or forty below zero. One point well made is that men
are in the majority out here, as women tend to prefer a
larger town and some comforts. So the number of suspects is
large. At this point, a truant dog Allan is chasing provides
him with a human bone.
Rachel Lee is a highly talented author, and she provides us
with detailed search techniques, strongly drawn characters,
plus emotion-grabbing scenes. That's a killer combination.
MISSING IN CONARD COUNTY will make you feel bitter cold,
enraged and determined. Quite a lot more than the average
romance.
A Wyoming snowstorm races in
Bringing buried secrets to the surface
A stray dog just dropped a bone at animal control officer
Allan Carstairs’s feet—a human bone. K-9 cop Kelly Noveno
is certain it’s connected to a recent disappearance, but
with a snowstorm bearing down on Conard County, the two
must hunker down in Allan’s cabin to continue the search.
But their long-held feelings are rushing to the surface,
making this search more complicated than ever.
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