In Jeffrey B. Burton’s the Lost, the third installment in the Mace Reid K-9 mystery thriller series, this spine-tingling thriller is twisted and full of suspense on every page. It all started for Mace and Kippy Gimm, when they received a phone call about a kidnapping. Kennneth Druckmann’s daughter Eleanor has gone missing. While Mace and Kippy search for the missing girl with Vira, they later learn that it’s more complicated than that with her father’s sole involvement in this sadistic plot from the beginning when they tracked him down, until his own untimely demise. Temporarily, Eleanor finds out that her former nanny Britt helped keep her safe from the bad guys, though Britt was already into the thick of things. As the search is on to find Britt and Elle, so were the bad guys who had other plans for them to take them to Russia and beyond. In a race against time, Mace, Kippy, and Vira were in hot pursuit of them, and later discovered a shocking twist in the end.

This compelling mystery thriller will keep you at the edge of your seat with full-throttle suspense on every page. I cared about Mace and his delightful K-9 dog pack with Vira leading the way. He cares about his job and his dogs, especially Sue who was injured from a previous case, and has strong feelings for his partner, Kippy. A possible good love match in the end. The scenic settings from Lake Michigan to Lake Geneva and in Detroit were picturesque for the location.

I rated this book, four out of five stars, because I love K-9 stories featuring lovable dogs of all breeds to look for missing people or buried remains. If you love heart-pounding mystery thrillers with non-stop suspense and high-octane dramatic action, you’ll love the Lost and other books in the series. This book is recommended for fans of Margaret Mizushima, Nora Roberts’s “the Search”, David Rosenfelt, and Alex Kava.

The Lost is the third in the Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series. Mace is a dog handler and trainer who trains dogs for a variety of investigative purposes, specializing in human remains detection. The K9 mysteries focus on Mace and his canine compatriots and their involvement in investigations; all of the novels work well as standalone reads, though the character development across books lends itself to being read in order.

In The Lost, Mace and golden retriever Vira, whose talents are uncanny bordering on supernatural, are called out to investigate the home invasion of a billionaire businessman and the abduction of his wife and child. When Vira locates the body of the missing supermodel mother in the woods behind the home, but no sign of the child and alerts Mace that the businessman, Druckman, likely killed the woman Mace thinks that Druckman likely murdered his wife and stashed his child somewhere safe.

The case is turned over to the FBI, but Mace and Detective Kippy Gimm, Mace's love interest, continue to quietly look into the case. They ultimately uncover a number of shady business dealings Druckman has been involved with, making them question their original supposition.

The Lost is a well done murder mystery/police procedural that kept me engaged in the storyline throughout; it is good for fans of the genre who are also dog lovers. Burton's writing is engaging and readable with intriguing plot points.

Mace and his HRD (Human Remains Detection) dogs are back with another adventure. This time there’s been a kidnapping. The wife and five-year-old daughter of a wealthy financier are missing. Mace and Detective Kippy Gimm race against time to find them but the case takes unexpected turns, involving some very bad players.

The Lost is the third book in the Mace Reid K-9 mystery series and it’s another enjoyable addition – not to mention a great cover. I love the dogs, Mace’s relationship with them, and the descriptions of their personalities and foibles. Obviously, this is a book that should appeal to dog lovers in particular. However, it’s also a good mystery, police procedural, and action book as well. The dialogue is snappy although sometimes a little bit too cavalier for the situation. Come on, Mace, when are you going to get serious about Kippy? Now I’ll have to wait for the next book so don’t take too long. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

If you're a dog lover, this book series is the best kind of thriller candy! I fly through these books and love my time in this world. The relationships with the cadaver dogs that are shown and discussed are heartwarming and the crimes are gritty and dark. It's a great blend that keeps me coming back for more!

3.5 stars

In this third book in the 'Mace Reid K-9 Mystery Series', cadaver dog trainer Mace Reid gets involved in a murder/abduction case. The novel works fine as a standalone.

*****

Chicago resident Mason Reid (Mace) trains cadaver dogs to search for human remains. Most of Mace's work involves helping the Chicago Police Department or local sheriffs' departments look for missing people who are presumed dead. This time, though, Mace is called in by FBI Special Agent Squires when multimillionaire Kenneth Druckman reports a home invasion.

According to Druckman, the kidnappers roughed him up, stole jewelry and money, and abducted his beautiful model wife Calley and their five-year-old daughter Eleanor. Mace and his best cadaver dog, a golden retriever named Vira (pronounced like Ira with a V), are sent to search the woods around Druckman's estate. Mace and Vira find Calley's body, but there's no sign of little Eleanor.

Besides finding cadavers, Vira has another talent. From the odors at the crime scene Vira can sniff out the perp. After finding Calley's corpse, Vira knocks against Mace's chest, catches his eye, jumps around him, and points herself back toward the Druckman mansion. The message: Druckman killed his wife.

Special Agent Squires agrees that Druckman is the #1 suspect, but without evidence, Druckman can't be accused of the crime. So the FBI, as well as Mace and his girlfriend, Chicago Police Detective Kippy Gumm .investigate Druckman, whom they assume has his daughter Eleanor stashed somewhere.

The story is told in the present, with flashbacks to the past. We learn that Druckman was in BIG trouble with a mysterious Belgian billionaire, who lost money in Druckman's Ponzi scheme. In addition, Russian mobsters want the jewels that were allegedly stolen. So the case gets more and more complicated.

The author Jeffrey Burton infuses the story with a lot of humor - in the form of Mace's snarky comments, and it's a pleasure to romp with Mace's many dogs, who include German Shepherd Sue (a male named for the Johnny Cash song 'A Boy Named Sue) - who sees himself as king of the pack; prankster collies Delta Dawn and Maggie May - who use a kind of mental telepathy to make Mace think he misplaced his keys, or left the stove on, etc; and young bloodhound Bill, who seeks out the smelliest rot to roll around in.

This is a enjoyable mystery, recommended to fans of the genre (and people who like dogs).

excellent read, filled with suspense, drama, and heart-pounding action. The characters are well-developed and engaging, and the plot is full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. If you're a fan of crime thrillers, then I highly recommend giving this book a try!

This is a fast-paced, entertaining series and book 3 brings a new mystery for Mace Reid and his cadaver dog, Vira. Even though the dogs are on the cover of all the books in the series, I like that they are not overemphasized. They're important, but there is a bigger plot that stands on its own.

Not as good as the first two books, but still good.

It was nice to see Mace, Vira, and Kippy again. The story was fine, though maybe there wasn't enough time spent with the good guys. Kinda wish there was a fourth book coming to finish off the series stronger, but if there's not, that's alright. It was still nice to spend time with Vira and her friends.

The latest entry in this series starring Mace Reid and Vira the cadaver dog brings us a solution almost as soon as the team gets to the crime scene. Vira identifies the bad guy so quickly that it isn’t clear where else the story is going to go—until it becomes clear that the real goal will be finding the victim’s kidnapped 5-year-old daughter. From here, things get convoluted, with stolen jewelry, eastern European thugs, and a kidnapper who wasn’t told the whole story. The chapters are told from different points of view, which made this book less fun to read than the earlier ones. The whole appeal of this series is spending time with the investigators while they work—dogs and all. It’s all light fun. When two-thirds of the chapters are told from the point of view of the bad guys or the scared young kidnap victim, everything seems a lot darker. We are still confident that Vira will save the day and that the good guys are going to win in the end, so there’s never much fear that things won’t work out. Still, every chapter spent with the mobsters feels like a missed opportunity to hang out with the good guys (and their very good dogs).

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for a digital advance review copy.

THis was a great mystery. THe cadaver dogs cracked me up. The book really kept me on my toes throughout the whole story

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Mystery

Mason Reid, a.k.a. Mace, trains dogs for police purposes outside of Chicago. He is normally called in when someone needs a body found, as that's what his dogs are known for. When Kenneth J. Druckman is assaulted and his wife, former supermodel Calley Kurtz, and his daughter, Eleanor, are abducted, Mace and his trusty dog Vira are on the case.

You weave through the twisted woods of the Druckman estate, as well as the twisted mind of a cold blooded killer.

Twists and turns lead you through the police procedure of searching for Druckman's wife and daughter.

This book has you jump between characters – their thoughts, actions, and motivations. It's a fun way to read the mystery as you are just given snippets here and there.

Burton does a great job at winding through the minds of the characters and piecing together the mystery. While the mystery is not complex to figure out, Burton does a great job at keeping the reader wanting to turn the page and find the motivation behind everyone's actions.

If you love dogs, murder and mystery then this book is for you. Jeffrey Burton does it again with a great read that will keep you turning the pages until you get to the end.

This is the kind of book that I enjoy grabbing for a great Sunday afternoon read, when I can put my feet up and let myself be taken away to another place entirely.

I would recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery!

This is the third book in the Mace Reid K-9 mysteries. I would say it could be read as a standalone, especially since a lot of the backstory about the dogs and other connections is repeated. I didn’t love the jumping between timelines so much in this one. The mystery was good even if it wasn’t twisty. Mace and his dogs are called to investigate after a kidnapping of a woman and her child in a jewelry bust gone wrong. He does find the woman in the woods and his dog Vira, with her special abilities, leads him to believe the woman was killed by her husband. The FBI continues their investigation but Mace and his girlfriend and cop Kippy can’t help but investigate on their own too as there is still a missing child to find. Overall I gave this 3.5 stars rounded up as it was an interesting and quick read.

The Lost is the third Mace Reid novel. My thoughts are split on this one.

I love Mace’s character, his dogs, and their relationships. The first two books put the dogs front and center, which was my favorite aspect. This new one keeps the dogs largely in the background, which was a disappointment.

The plot felt overly complicated and less plausible than the previous books.

I enjoyed the infusion of humor and the role Mace’s dog Vira played in the story.

While I didn’t love this one, I did find it entertaining.

DNF 34%

After reading the first two books in the Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series, which I really enjoyed, The Lost failed to fully draw me into the story. I wasn't drawn into the mystery of the dead bodies that Mace and his band of dogs helped to come sniff out along with assistance from Kippy on the investigative side, although it wasn't here case. There was another element to the case on intervening chapters, but that wasn't drawing me into the story either. I decided it was best for my time to just set the book down.

Thank you to Minotaur for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. I enjoy Jeffrey B. Burton's writing, but the storytelling for this book just wasn't for me.

I was so excited to dive into the next installment of the Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series after enjoying the two previous books.

One thing I like about this series is each one can stand alone if you don't have access to all of them, however if you like me have now read all three, you may find parts a bit repetitive. As we once again follow Mace and his pack of cadaver dogs. However, in this third installment I felt like we once again got the entire history of each dog in the pack just like we got it in book two. I don't know if it was to set up the pack for those picking these books up as standalone, but I think it was a bit too repetitive for those of us who have read all three books in the series.

I needed more of Vira doing her thing and less jumping around between POVs and even less time with the accomplice here. The last 1/4 felt very "I don't know how to make this more dramatic, but let's try this".

I'll still continue on in the series, but this is my least favorite.

3.5 rounded up

I enjoyed the third installment of the Mace Reid K-9 Mystery, and it was just as fast-paced as the other two. However, I felt like it didn’t have as much of the cadaver detection as the rest. The dogs were still apart of this mystery, but they didn’t seem to have as big of a role as in the other two. The author did a good job summarizing Vira’s abilities without it being repetitive from the first two. Each dog has their own personality and I love the found family vibe they give off. I loved the fact that we got a POV from the villains, it always adds more to the story for me, but I wish that the change between POV was announced, sometimes it took me a little bit before I realized who I was reading about. I like Reid’s personality and its nice to see his relationship continue as they have fun banter. Each dog has their own personality and I hope the series continues so we can get to see each of them shine.

Thank you @netgalley and @minotaur_books for the gifted copy.

I really like this author and series. So maybe I am a little biased as if there is a dog in it I am likely to read or listen. This book reinforced my bias in the best way. Great writing, characters, storyline and a fabulous smart working dog, even if the dog is not the main character. A home invasion becomes a kidnapping and Mace Reid and one of his dogs are called to the scene to help investigate. He works with the FBI to navigate all of the twists, turns, lies, misdirections, red herrings while navigating family dynamics, wealthy people who use their money to insulate themselves and more. A compelling read. Looking forward (hopefully) to the next addition to the series.

This is the third book in a series, but each works great as a stand-alone book. I’ve been following the series because I got hooked by the first book, “The Finders”.
Mace is a sweetheart; a somewhat bumbling trainer of cadaver-sniffing dogs who work as a team to help solve crimes. He acts before he thinks, which lands him in some dangerous situations from time to time.
Detective Kippy Gimm, who met Mace through working with the dogs, is his sidekick in a few of their investigations. Kippy is tough; a strong-willed woman who does exactly as she wants. As these books have meandered along, Mace and Kippy are slowly acknowledging that their concern and care for each other is advancing beyond the success and safety of their cases.
In this current case, Kenneth Druckman, a wealthy Chicago businessman is attacked at his home and his wife and child are kidnapped. Mace knows the man is lying from the start when his most intelligent dog, Vira, puts the evil eye on Druckman. So begins a whirlwind of events, each more dangerous than the last, as Mace and Kippy race the clock to separate the lies from the truths.
The main characters are colorful and enjoyable (especially the dogs), the plot is believable and quick-paced, and the snarky humor adds an exciting flair.
Thanks so much to St. Martin’s Press- Minotaur for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This thriller had some great twists and turns that I really enjoyed. I used to live near Glencoe, so that was fun to read a story about an area I knew. The cadaver dogs were great.