Still waters

Driscoll's entertaining seventh FBI K-9 novel (after 2021's Under Pressure) takes the FBI Human Scent Evidence Team of Meg Jennings and her Labrador, Hawk, to a lake in Minnesota's Superior National Forest for a water search training program. The weekend event, which has drawn law enforcement dog handlers from around the country, includes a contest. Among those pitching their tents in this rugged wilderness is someone who's determined to win at all costs. Meg has a run-in with this person, whose body Hawk later discovers submerged in the lake, and Meg becomes the prime murder suspect. Though Meg's supported by her ever-faithful partner, firefighter/paramedic Todd Webb, and her sister's partner, Washington Post investigative reporter Clay McCord, she struggles to prove her innocence. The mystery solving sometimes gets lost amid the loads of information about water search training and tips on setting up campsites, and the end comes in a bit of a rush during an extended boat chase, but Driscoll touches a chord with those who deeply love and respect their pets. A happy personal development for Meg will delight series fans. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Dec.)

In the seventh "FBI K-9" mystery (after Under Pressure) FBI search and rescue team Meg Jennings and her black Labrador Hawk are in the Boundary Waters wilderness area in Minnesota, learning how to do searches on the waters and participating in a competition with other teams. After some odd happenings in the first round, Meg and Hawk are doing better in the second when Hawk detects an odd scent on the water. After locating the source, the diver on board their boat goes down to investigate and discovers the body of one of the other contestants. Unfortunately, it is one who has alienated most of the competitors (including Meg), so there is no shortage of potential suspects. The location in the remote north woods also complicates the investigation. Suspicion even falls on Meg, which prompts her friends and coworkers to aid her in clearing herself and finding the real killer. VERDICT Fans of the series will enjoy this entry, which includes fascinating details about search dogs and their work as well as a unique settings and a colorful cast of recurring characters.--Dan Forrest

A routine training weekend for FBI search-and-rescue dog handler Meg Jennings and Hawk, her black Lab, turns out to be anything but. Meg and Brian Foster, another handler on the Human Scent Evidence Team, have asked Craig Beaumont, the special agent in charge who heads their unit, to authorize their participation in an event to help their canine charges sharpen their skills at finding human remains in and under water. The weekend in Minnesota's Superior National Forest, organized under the auspices of the Search Dogs of America, brings them into competition with half a dozen other person-and-pooch pairs from New York, Connecticut, Chicago, Wyoming, and California. Disappointed by Hawk's performance on their first search, Meg is horrified that night to see preening Deputy Rita Pratt, of the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, choking Ava, her Malinois partner who's taken the lead. The next day, she learns that Pratt has responded to her threat to report the incident by preemptively filing a similar report against Meg. What makes the turnabout particularly awkward is that in between the two shocking moments, Pratt's corpse has been discovered by none other than Hawk. Called from the Minneapolis FBI office to investigate, Special Agent Jonathan Brogan wastes no time establishing his institutional impartiality by casting Meg as the prime suspect, and she's stripped of her official status pending a formal investigation. Without missing a beat, she sends out an SOS to Washington Post reporter Clay McCord, her sister's partner, who joins Brian and D.C. firefighter/paramedic Lt. Todd Webb, Meg's own romantic partner, to search for clues against the only other suspects: the event's organizers and other participants. As usual, though, it's the dogs who carry off detecting honors. Not much mystery but reams of logistical detail about the training and handling of these superskilled canines. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.