Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima

Standing Dead
by Margaret Mizushima

ISBN-13: 9781639102440
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Released: March 7, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Deputy Mattie Cobb and her sister, Julia, travel to Mexico to visit their mother, but when they arrive, they discover that she and her husband have vanished without a trace. Back in Timber Creek, Mattie finds a chilling note on her front door telling her to look for “him” among the standing dead up in the high country.

The sheriff’s department springs into action and sends a team to the mountains, where Mattie’s K-9 partner, Robo, makes a grisly discovery—a body tied to a dead pine tree. Mattie is shocked when she realizes she knows the dead man. And then another note arrives, warning that Mattie’s mother is in desperate straits. In a last-ditch gambit, Mattie must go into a killer’s lair to save her mother—or die trying.


My Review:
Standing Dead is a K9-detective mystery. It's the 8th in a series. You can understand this book without reading the previous ones, and this book didn't spoil the previous mysteries.

The main characters were likable and complex, and they acted realistically to events. I cared about what happened to them. They dealt with personal struggles while solving the mystery. Mattie and Robo (her loyal and talented working dog), Cole (the veterinarian who loves her), and the rest of the sheriff’s department worked to solve the crimes. This was a clue-based mystery. It also had a lot of suspense due to the danger to the good guys, especially Mattie's family.

The crime scenes were not described in gory detail. There were no sex scenes. The were a couple of uses of bad language. Overall, I'd highly recommend this interesting and exciting novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.