Hunting the Truth by Kathleen Donnelly

Hunting the Truth
by Kathleen Donnelly

ISBN-13: 9781335475916
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Released: September 26, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
“Hide, Maya. Don’t let the bad people find you.” Those are the last words Forest Service law enforcement officer and K-9 handler Maya Thompson ever heard her mother say.

Returning home to the Colorado mountains after leaving the Marines, Maya is no longer a scared little girl. She’s determined to investigate her mother’s cold case, but fear creeps in when it comes to her personal life—things are getting serious with sheriff deputy Josh Colten. After new DNA evidence surfaces, both her beloved grandfather and Josh warn her away from the case, suspecting that she could be the next victim. But Maya doesn’t listen. Instead, Maya and her K-9 partner, Juniper, track a suspect deep into the forest and directly into grave danger.


My Review:
Hunting the Truth is a K9 mystery. It's the second book in a series, and it spoiled events in the previous book. It can be read as a standalone, but I wonder if I might have understood the "romance" better if I'd read the first story. Maya's relationship with Josh seemed more like a physical attraction than a true friendship on her part. She's not very nice to the guy. They didn't even work well together because she didn't work well with anyone. Maya just did whatever she wanted, even when she knew it'd worry or emotionally hurt those she supposedly loved and even if it went against the rules or an order. She's so emotionally distant from everyone--even her K9--that I had a hard time relating to her.

She just recently started working with her K9, and the dog clearly didn't respect Maya. The dog did whatever she wanted, and Maya was gratified when that happened to be what Maya wanted, too. Maya was clearly not the one in charge as she kept doing things to "make up" to the sulking dog. Maya thought that she trusted her dog, but the dog tried to alert her to things on several occasions and Maya just dismissed it. So they didn't have much of a bond or a good working relationship even if the dog was good at what she was trained to do.

The mystery had some twists and turns. Maya's mother had something that several people wanted. When Maya reopened her mother's murder case, those people assumed she'd found evidence against them and came to stop her. The suspense stayed fairly high as repeated attempts were made to kill Maya. Maya used her dog to find evidence, track scent trails, and bite bad guys. She got the bad guys to confess, but even so, some parts didn't really make sense to me.

Maya came across as competent when she was finding and disabling booby-traps on hiking trails (as a part of her normal job). When trying to solve the murder case, though, she came across as so very unprofessional that I can't believe she still has a job. She's been sober for several months, so there was no drinking in this story. There was no sex. There was some bad language. Overall, this book didn't engage me, but K9 mystery fans might be interested in it.


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.