Margaret Mizushima's Gathering Mist (Crooked Lane Books 2024), Book 9 in the Timber Creek K-9 Mystery series, is as good as you'd expect. A trained police dog Deputy, a search-and-rescue dog, a missing child, the rugged Pacific Northwest terrain, and a clock on finding the child--who needs more drama, appealing characters, or challenging setting? Deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 partner, Robo, are called in as part of a K-9 search and rescue to find a missing child. It's only a week before her wedding, but in true Mattie fashion, everything is second to finding the child. From the beginning Mattie is suspicious of the famous actress mother, but as the search progresses, more than just questionable answers worry Mattie. When one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, Mattie's fiancée and skilled vet, Cole Walker, is called in to help determine what made the dog sick and is anyone else in danger. In the end, as always, it is up to Mattie’s cop instinct and Robo's superior nose to unravel who the good and bad guys are and where the child is hidden.

This series is always interesting with a heavy focus on not just Robo but the workings of SAR dogs and the community. If you like this sort of story, you'll need to read this.

What an enthralling story. I was hooked. The rush I felt for them to solve the case so that Mattie and Cole could get married! The twists and turns of suspects and the worry I felt for a fictional child was immense. So well written.

Ooh, this newest book was so good I read it in one day (I stayed up into the wee hours to do so)! Maddie and her SAR/drug dog Robo are asked to go to the Pacific NW to aide in the search for a missing child but much more is in store for the searchers than they anticipate and litgle isnwhat it seems. Although this is a continuation of the series, the author is very good about including why the deputy SAR dog handlers do the things they do, including how they handle their canine partners (it's very informative information), which just adds another dimension to the story. She also continues the character development/relationships in a way that makes you think of these characters as real people and makes you wish the final situation wasn't real.

A K9 - police story about missing children, and the search for them and founding unexpected things. Very meticulously written, very detailed with knowledge and precision.

Margaret did it again! This book has a good amount of mystery and romance in it . I could not put it down and read in 2 days. I loved all the characters and dogs. This is an absolute must read. I highly recommend everyone read ! It kept me guessing till the end and was surprised at the end . so grab the book and read

Just days before her wedding to veterinarian Cole Walker, Deputy Mattie Wray is asked to fly to Washington's Olympic Peninsula where a celebrity's nine-year-old son has disappeared from the film site. The skills of Mattie's search-and-rescue dog, Robo, are needed in the search in the rainy forests, trails, and creeks. It isn't long before the search teams learn that other boys have disappeared from the area in the last few years. Then, one of the dogs and several searchers are poisoned, and Mattie discovers arsenic-tainted water. Fearing for Mattie and Robo, Cole flies in to act as a vet for all the dogs. When they realize River, the missing boy, was probably kidnapped, and didn't just wander off, the organized search becomes more desperate. Mattie's greatest fear is that it will be the cadaver dogs that discover the boy, rather than Robo and other air scent dogs. The sequel to Standing Dead sends Mattie and Robo to a difficult search environment. The story of the search, and the setting, are beautifully developed in a mystery that builds in intensity and suspense. Readers who enjoy Sara Driscoll's F.B.I. K-9 books will appreciate the emphasis on search-and-rescue dogs.

I really enjoyed this book. This is the first in the series that I have read and I am eager to go back and start from the beginning. I appreciate the character development and the obvious love and care for the dogs.

What a great, enjoyable read. This is the first in the series that I have read and I am glad I found it. Great characters, compelling story and exciting premise.
The level of detail that the author employs in describing the work of the K-9 unit is excellent. You understand the level of work required and the capabilities of those dogs. It makes you appreciate them a little more.
While there was a lot of backstory with the characters that has built off of other books in the series, and being new, did not fully grab my attention, I appreciated the detail. I was able to engage with them more and I will look for previous novels to read.

If you have always wanted to experience the world of search and rescue, this K-9 series is for you!

You will love Robo and the team he makes with Mattie. There is so much great information in here about air scenting and search and rescue but I do want to highlight a moment where the author openly talks about breaking usual protocol with Robo to let him sleep near her for the purpose of body heat. This scene shows the other side of the work and gives us a glimpse of the true affection behind the job and the partnership. Her kiss on his head and the way he prances with excitement about working with her say it all.

This book can be read as a stand alone mystery but I would definitely recommend reading the others in the series. This was my first time reading this author and I would have loved to have the entire backstory in mind to enrich the experience but it has enough information to be read by itself. It is mainly the relationship between Mattie and Cole that I personally would have liked to see the full course of before reading.

I like the way this book takes place with Mattie needing to take off to solve this mystery with her partner one week before she is scheduled to be married. It adds to the urgency of an already time sensitive situation. That heightened the suspense for me.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to going back and catching all the others in the series. If you love K-9 related stories like I do, you won't want to miss this one.

I might be bias but I love a good story with a dog. The cover is what started my interest and the story that kept it.

Gathering Mist is a spellbinding and riveting story of search and rescue. Called to Washington State to assist in the search for a missing 9 year-old boy, I was quickly caught up in the details and suspense of the search dogs, the volunteers, and the operation of the entire ordeal. Add in the tension of Maddie and Cole’s wedding being less than a week away, and time was of the essence! I loved the story! I love the various characters in the books, and highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great K-9 mystery!

Gathering Mist is a well written book. I throughly enjoyed the fast paced plot and the character dynamics. I received an advance ebook from the publisher and Netgalley and this is an unbiased review.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and realised it was a series!

I enjoyed this book , and love that there is so much about the dog robo. Different from the usual detective book and shows us a different side with k9s , I’ll be sure to read more of this series as I quickly like mattie too!

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book ahead of time in exchange for a review. You should read it!

With only a week to go before her wedding, Mattie Wray should be finding a dress and finalizing other details. Instead, she and Robo are called to Oregon to assist in the search for a child missing from a film set. Not only do the weather conditions hamper the search, but it is unclear if the kid is missing or if his actress mom has spirited him away as a publicity stunt. When a dog suffers a seizure indicative of poisoning, Mattie calls Cole to help out. Out of their element, Mattie and Robo must do what they've trained for. Exciting as usual!

"Gathering Mist" is a K9-detective mystery. It's the 9th 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. Mattie and Robo (her talented K9) and Cole (the veterinarian who loves her) worked with Robo's original trainer and his dogs and an unknown-to-them sheriff during a search and rescue in Washington’s Olympic peninsula. Mattie soon uncovered evidence pointing toward kidnapping, so she helped find evidence and interview suspects while also searching for the missing child. This was a clue-based mystery. It also had a lot of suspense due to the danger to the child the longer he was gone, the hard terrain to search through, and the fact that the bad person didn't want their crimes uncovered.

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

(2.5 stars)
"Don't worry if you lose sight of your dog when he goes into ravines or places you can't follow. He'll do his job and he'll always know where you are. Remember that his sense of smell tells him exactly where to go." Gathering Mist is my first Margaret Mizushima novel, but her ninth in the series, so the author and series are clearly popular with their target market. I picked it up for a trashy read because it was about search and rescue dogs, and on that level, it delivered.

My low rating comes from two things. The first is the sheer amount of references to other books, which for a new reader is a bit tiresome, but probably works for consumers of the whole series: "Having experienced enough danger even in her own home during the past several months, Mattie no longer left her doors unlocked when she was inside." I also hated the last chapter, which takes place after the mystery has been solved. This long-winded chapter gives every single word of the lead protagonist, Deputy Mattie Wray's, wedding vows and felt exceedingly tedious to a new reader, but no doubt would be eaten up by regulars who had invested more in the character than one book allows.

I love this series! I always look forward to reading the latest Timber Creek novel and they never disappoint. Mattie and her dog, Robo, are one of my favorite detective duos, and I've grown to love them as well as all of the other meaningful characters that this series has introduced along the way. And that definitely includes ALL of the dogs! Who doesn't love dogs?! This story's main focus is on finding the child of a famous celebrity that has gone missing in the Seattle wilderness. With each obstacle they faced, the nail-biting intensity of the rescue team's mission just poured out from the pages. I really enjoyed this novel and was so happy at the end. I laughed, smiled, and even cried a little. These characters have become like family to me, and I cannot wait to read the next book. I highly recommend Gathering Mist! It's the 9th book in the series and can be read as a stand-alone but it would definitely be better to start with book one. You will not be disappointed!

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!

This newest installment of the Timber Creek k-9 Mystery has Mattie and her k-9 partner Robo working a case in Washington State. They’ve been called in to help locate a missing 9 year old who is the son of an actress working on a movie set. The environment is the toughest they’ve ever dealt with, not just because of the weather but the terrain is brutal.
Maggie was called on this just days before her wedding to Cole and they both hope she’ll make it back in time.
As they search along side other law enforcement and volunteers they’ll make a shocking discovery which puts them into overdrive to find this child.
This story is gripping and as usual very well written drawing you in from the beginning.. I absolutely loved this and I highly recommend it, a great addition to the series.
—— Did they get married or not———?

Thank you #NetGalley #GatheringMist #TimberCreekk-9Mystery for this ARC

The series moves temporarily to the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula as Mattie and K-9 Robo are asked to help with a search for a missing child. Mattie's fiance Cole joins them along with other police officers and search & rescue teams. Incredibly atmospheric and vivid descriptions of the rain and mud and pines, as well as a fascinating look at how a large-scale rescue operation works. It's also a pleasure to see the relationships between long-time characters develop. Thanks to PenguinRandomHouse and NetGalley for the ARC.