Debut
This is an excellent debut from animal behaviorist Patricia McConnell, whose main character, Maddie McGowan, is also an animal behaviorist who goes to sheepdog trials in her spare time. She takes her beloved dog, Jack, to trials, and he is still learning the ropes a bit. The book opens with a bang. Maddie is at a trial with her mentor, George, who offers her encouragement before her “run” with Jack, and then the worst happens. George is shot and dies, and everyone at the trial feels it must have been a hunting accident.
Maddie deals with her grief by staying centered and working, so we as readers are treated to her animal clients, and these parts of the book are completely fascinating. If you like animals at all (but especially dogs) you’ll no doubt enjoy these parts as well. Like fellow “dog” writers Paula Munier and Margaret Mizishima, McConnell obviously loves dogs and understands them. It shines through in her writing.
Maddie also volunteers at the local animal shelter, and it’s there she meets a bag of bones named Cisco. The shelter is about ready to put him down, but they call on Maddie as a last resort. He won’t let anyone get near him – however, not only is Maddie able to get near him, she falls in love with him and wants to take him home as a foster. She also realizes that Cisco must have been some kind of drug detection or K9 dog.
McConnell is excellent at setting up Maddie’s matrix – the people around her that she works with as well as her dog related friends and her neighbors. After a life trauma, Maddie has found a Wisconsin farm to call home, where she lives in isolated beauty with sheep, a horse, a couple dogs and a couple cats. Cisco is added to the mix. And then there are the flashbacks to what happened to her in the past – these are teased out throughout the narrative, adding complexity to the mystery of George’s death but to another later death as well.
The mystery part of this is not as strong as the characters and setting, but those parts are so outstanding that I didn’t really care. The resolution was not unexpected, but the path McConnell takes to get to it is. She creates a suspenseful story grounded in her life and the life of her animals – again, similar to Munier and Mizushima – but she has a few pacing issues to sort out. Still, this was a really enjoyable read and I learned as I read, but in a way that was organic and not shoved in front of me. Maddie is a wonderful character, and I would definitely be interested in her next adventure. — Robin Agnew