“Stop That!” I Said to Myself

Before It’s Too Late – Sara Driscoll

Ever heard the joke about the guy who goes to the doctor and tells her, “It hurts when I do this”? The punchline, of course, is that she says, “Well, stop doing that!” Ba. Dump. Bump. I could say the same thing of the Sara Driscoll F.B.I. K-9 series: “It hurts when I read this; so maybe I should stop.” But I didn’t…

I read book two, Before It’s Too Late, and I’m… not sure why. It’s probably because I didn’t have anything else to read (the latest Virgil Flowers novel wasn’t out yet), and it might be because I really, really love Labrador Retrievers and the K-9 in question is a black Lab named Hawk. More likely both. But anyway, about the book:

F.B.I. K-9 handler Meg Jennings is obviously the target of a serial whackaloon: he kidnaps women who look like her (“black Irish” features) and then sends a coded message addressed to Meg, a message that consists of cryptic clues to where he’s hidden the kidnapped woman. Oh, and the woman isn’t dead yet; he’s killing her slowly by asphyxiation. Creepy dude…

Love the Dog, but the Novel's Pretty Much Meh

Lone Wolf - Sara Driscoll

There are a lot of pet mysteries on the market, ranging from the childish – Spencer Quinn’s dog Chet talks, though like a hyperactive toddler with ADD – to more adult fare like Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy series, in which dogs and cats (among other animals) speak like guests at the Algonquin Round Table. A few mysteries have dogs who act like dogs: Robert Crais writes one that features rescued bomb-sniffer Maggie. To the more noble vein of the latter, you can add Sara Driscoll’s new FBI K-9 series featuring Hawk and his handler Meg, beginning with Lone Wolf.