{"id":6000,"date":"2024-09-28T09:14:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T16:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6000"},"modified":"2024-09-28T09:14:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T16:14:40","slug":"the-canine-reads-of-margaret-mizushima-and-paula-munier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/the-canine-reads-of-margaret-mizushima-and-paula-munier\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canine reads of Margaret Mizushima and Paula Munier"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Night Woods,\u00a0<\/strong>Paula Munier (Mercy Carr<\/em> #6) and Gathering Mist,\u00a0<\/strong>Margaret Mizushima\u00a0(Timber Creek K-9 #9)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In sports there are often rivals who challenge each other to greater excellence.\u00a0 This happens in writing too, and the head-to-head match up of Paula Munier and Margaret Mizushima, who both write working dog mysteries, is a fantastic example.\u00a0 Both series continue to maintain their excellence, and while I can\u2019t say for sure if these two women know each other, are friendly rivals or even read each other\u2019s work, I do know the similarity in topic calls for a comparison.\u00a0 Munier\u2019s first book, A Borrowing of the Bones<\/em>, was published in 2018, while Mizushima\u2019s first novel, Killing Trail<\/em>, came out in 2015.\u00a0 Each writer has worked steadily, producing a book every year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Munier\u2019s series focuses on Mercy Carr, who lost her beloved to war, and came home with PTSD and her late partner\u2019s dog, Elvis, who suffers from the same torment.\u00a0 The two form a stronger and stronger bond throughout the series, and Elvis, a wonderful tracker, is often put to use by the police department of the tiny Vermont town where Mercy lives.\u00a0 At this point in the series, Mercy has married Troy, the fish and game warden, first seen in the first book.\u00a0 Things have progressed nicely, and in this instalment Mercy is heavily pregnant, giving the book a ticking clock aspect that adds to the suspense.<\/p>\n

Trying to avoid her mother who is intent on planning a baby shower, she goes to visit her buddy Homer, who lives alone in the woods and loves a good game of Scrabble.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when she arrives, he\u2019s gravely injured, and, oh yeah, there\u2019s also a corpse in the cabin.\u00a0 This initiates a long series of scary events that eventually conclude with the pregnant Mercy alone in the dark, freezing Vermont woods, facing the imminent birth of her baby.<\/p>\n

For her part Mizushima\u2019s series focuses on Mattie Cobb, a grown up foster kid and deputy who has been assigned the task of working with K-9 officer Robo.\u00a0 As the series opens, she and Robo are just beginning to learn how to cooperate and trust, and by book 9 they\u2019ve become a cohesive team. Like Mercy, Mattie has a personal milestone coming up, as she\u2019s about to get married. But before that can happen, she and Robo are called away to help find a child who has vanished into some treacherous woods in Washington State. The ground has been awash in rain (and an atmospheric mist) for days, so much of the ground scent has been effaced. As Robo has been trained as an air scent dog, meaning he can track someone using scents in the air, he\u2019s indispensable. The search for the child is the whole of this suspenseful, well written book, where frustrations in the field, the various human\/dog partnerships, and the complications of grieving, divorced parents present daunting challenges for the search and rescue teams.<\/p>\n

Mercy and Mattie aren\u2019t the kind of gals who dwell on the domestic, but both share strong love and home lives with the partners who flesh out their respective series. Often helpful in the field, Mattie\u2019s significant other is a vet, while Mercy\u2019s, as mentioned, is a fish and wildlife agent, so the two often work the same territory.\u00a0 In each series nature plays such a strong role that it practically becomes a character itself.\u00a0 Although Mattie lives in a small Colorado mountain town and Mercy in a tiny town in Vermont, each place seems to be visited (much like Cabot Cove) by a nearly unbelievable amount of crime!<\/p>\n

While both authors focus on some of the technical elements that make dogs such good search partners, Mizushima tends to include more details.\u00a0 Munier can almost visit the cozy side of things at times, with her books being a real m\u00e9lange of elements \u2013 as in this one where Mercy\u2019s baby shower is a strong plot thread.\u00a0 Both celebrated\/celebrate the weddings of their main characters, neither of whom were particularly interested in their wedding dress. (Their creators are though, and descriptions of each are included).<\/p>\n

Both writers are similarly wonderful at narrative and suspense, causing me to usually have a hard time putting books by either woman aside while I\u2019m reading.\u00a0 As my son discovered to his horror, I like Batman and<\/em> Superman.\u00a0 Almost equally.\u00a0 Malinois (Mercy) or Shepherd (Mattie)?\u00a0 Both! And I adore both Mattie Cobb and Mercy Carr (same initials even. Hmmm).\u00a0 Both series bring a unique edge to their books, so I can also learn a bit while I\u2019m being sucked into their great stories.\u00a0 In this case, rivalries rule, with both series coming out as winners.\u00a0\u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Night Woods,\u00a0Paula Munier (Mercy Carr #6) and Gathering Mist,\u00a0Margaret Mizushima\u00a0(Timber Creek K-9 #9) In sports there are often rivals who challenge each other to greater excellence.\u00a0 This happens in writing too, and the head-to-head match up of Paula Munier and Margaret Mizushima, who both write working dog mysteries, is a fantastic example.\u00a0 Both series … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[943,1861,404,1862,539,100,252,1276,1863,1860,25,1864],"class_list":["post-6000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-gathering-mist","tag-margaret-mizushima","tag-mattie-cobb","tag-mercy-carr","tag-minotaur-books","tag-paula-munier","tag-robin-agnew","tag-search-and-rescue-dogs","tag-the-night-woods","tag-vermont","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6004,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6000\/revisions\/6004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}