Standing Dead: Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries, Book 8

I loved all of the Timber Creek K-9 mystery series. The characters were rich, the mysteries exciting and all were written with love and informative information. I hope book 8 is not the final chapter but if it is then we have come full circle. The story of Mattie and her life of sadness, strife and heartache to a life filled with a successful career as a K-9 officer, her beloved fellow officer named Robo and her new found family and a man and his family that loved her brought such joy to a woman who never thought any of it was possible was a journey worth taking in this wonderful series.

Margaret Mizushima is an excellent writer and really understands K9’s.This book will keep you motivated not to put the book down. Each page pulls youTo the next and next pages.

I have read all of the books in the Timber Creek series. This story was very suspenseful, well-written and narrated. It truly was a page-turner that I did not want to put down. However, all things considered, in my opinion, this was not Mizushima's best novel. I think the family-steeped story line is getting a bit tiresome. My impression is that, in most of Mizushuma's stories, Mattie, Cole and the police officers are not merely characters investigating and solving crimes; they or their immediate families are almost always personally involved in the crimes and, usually, the perpetrators' primary targets. A police mystery does not invariably have to be written that way. Maybe it is time for Mizushima to conjure a novel that the continuing characters "merely" investigate and solve. I am also perhaps becoming tired with the latent sadism lurking in some of these villains in these stories. In addition, I thought the plot was not balanced in several respects. Given the build-up to the final confrontation, the denouement was unduly short, quick and almost treated as an after-thought. I liked having Cole more involved, but, maybe too much of the plot was devoted to his veterinary work. Robo's role seemed to be less in this novel, which disappointed me as he is my favorite character. And Mattie is becoming more of a comic book superhero than a minimally plausible police officer. Maybe she needs to make the occasional mistake or endure a slight reversal on occasion to gain some minimal semblance of realism. All that said, I still look forward to reading the next book in this series.

I loved this book. Lots of tension and suspense as well as feel-good times. Give it a try. Love the dog parts.

Each of Margaret Mizushima's "Timber Creek" stories are outstanding.

I love the details about the scenery and characters but totally awe by the details of Robo and Mattie and their training and relationship.

I love these books. Great writing. Plus Robo is a great dog. You won't be disappointed in this series. Kudos!

I've been in a book slump recently when it comes to mystery and thrillers but this is one of my favorite series so I had to read it. Took a little longer to read than I had anticipated but I still really enjoyed it.This one reveals more of Mattie's past throughout the book but even with how this one ended (not saying how, we don't need spoilers) I don't feel like everything from her past is finished revealing itself.I guess we'll see in future books from this series.

Enjoyable read, with things happening all over the place, trying to pick the killers was fun too, i always enjoy books with animals involved and of course good human characters.