SERIES ON LOVE INSPIRED SUSPENSE K-9 UNIT SERIES CRITIQUES

You probably have noticed that I read and review a lot of novels from Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense imprint, and the majority of those belong to their annual multi-author K-9 series. After all, who can resist all those wonderful dogs?! So far I've read six series (or the majority of six series) and will be starting a seventh next week.  With that in mind, I thought I'd give an overview of the six series I've read.

Technically, this is my second review of a series. The first book review I did, in fact (posted September 22, 2020) was on this series. If you want to review it, click here. 

However, there is a difference between that and what I'll be doing here. This series is not of book reviews but critiques. What's the difference? In my reviews of the individual books, I go out of my way to avoid spoilers. (Anybody notice that?) My goal is to get those who would enjoy that book (or movie or album) interested in reading it and not ruining it in the process. Let me make this clear: THIS SERIES WILL HAVE SPOILERS! I'm looking at the development of each series, and thus cannot avoid spoiling parts of it. 

Typically, each series can be considered to have either eight or nine books. The story, which includes a major and usually two story threads that go through most or all of eight novels. But then, they have a ninth book featuring two novellas, which take place after the main stories have concluded. I have not read most of those final books. In the True Blue K-9 series, the main story involves the unsolved murder of the K-9 unit's chief and finding his K-9 Snapper. The other stories is the choosing of a new chief (which is one of the three brothers of the former chief, all of which are in the unit) and a restaurant that has a section for the K-9 officers and their partners called the doghouse, which closes down but is reopened at the end. One difference with this series is that it also has a prequel. 

The books in this series are: 

1. "Shield of Protection" by Dana Mentink.
2. "Justice Mission" by Lynette Eason.
3. "Act of Valor" by Dana Mentink.
4. "Blind Trust" by Laura Scott.
5. "Deep Undercover" by Lenora Worth.
6. "Seeking the Truth" by Terri Reed.
7. "Trail of Danger" by Valarie Hansen.
8. "Courage Under Fire" by Sharon Dunn.
9. "Sworn to Protect" by Shirlee McCoy.
10. "True Blue K-9 Unit Christmas" by Laura Scott and Maggie K. Black.

Note - I have not read the first two on the list nor the 9th one, due to the quickness of books going out of print and COVID. Less than 24 hours before writing this, I found the Christmas book, so I read this primarily to confirm my hunch that the restaurant reopened (it did).

My favorites were numbers 3 and 6. "Act of Valor" was the first K-9 unit book I read, and it got me hooked. It also included one of my all-time favorite villains - Javier Beck, a drug dealer who enjoyed being bad. But that one was topped by "Seeking the Truth." The heroine, reporter Rachelle Clark, basically had no family. She fell in love with widower Carter Jameson, one of the brothers of the murdered former chief. But Rachelle didn't just get the love of her life: she also got Carter's daughter and mother and rest of the family. After Carter proposed, his eavesdropping mother then told Rachelle it was time to go shopping.

Some of these older series may be hard to find, but if you can, they're worth it.

 

BOOK REVIEW: EXPLOSIVE SITUATION BY TERRI REED

In 2020, I got hooked on the True Blue K-9 Unit series published by Harlequin's Love-Inspired Suspense series (you can read my review of the series here). Evidently, the company has a series every year, and the following one published last year (I know, I'm a year behind) was the True Blue K-9 Unit Brooklyn (the first series was based in Queens).

I've missed the second part, but so far I've read the first, third, and fourth installments of this nine part series, and today I'm dealing with the latter, Explosive Situation by Terri Reed. I find it interesting that the fourth installments of both series deal with bomb sniffing pooches (a Beagle in this story, a Springer Spaniel and a Golden Retriever in Deep Undercover of the Queens series).

So far, this is my favorite of this series. In the previous series, it was the 5th book, Seeking The Truth by Terri Reed. If the author's name sounds familiar, it may be because you saw it in the title of this current review. At the moment, I've read only those two books by Terri, but I'm hooked.

One interesting thing about this book - it deals with a police officer suspected of excessive violence by an Internal Affairs investigator. Some of you may guess that the IA leader and the officer are of different genders and end up falling in love with each other. For those with that suspicion, what do you think this story is? Part of the Love-Inspired Suspense series? 

Sphinx Cat, vetstreet.brighspotcdn.com

A minor character that made this more enjoyable for Becky and I was Kitty.
Kitty is ... a cat. Not just any cat, but a Sphinx Cat. For those who haven't read the book or aren't familiar with cat breeds, Sphinx's are known as being hairless. Reed points out in the story that isn't true - they do have a peach fuzz. My wife would love a Sphinx Cat in the hopes that her cat allergies wouldn't act up. (I've read enough to know there's no guarantees - cat allergies are cause more by the cat's dander rather than their fur, and Sphinxes have dander.

Back to the book. It is an excellent story, with the surprises you expect in the story. I highly recommend it.

Any other Terri Reed fans? Any other guys like me who enjoy Love Inspired Suspense?

JEFF'S 12 FAVORITE FICTION WORKS OF 2020.

 This year, I read 27 novels written by 22 authors. For those interested in statistics, a whopping 21 of the authors are ladies, and 12 of the authors were ones I never read before (one of which I read two novels). As far as genre, 8 were mysteries, 14 were suspense/romantic suspense, and 5 were speculative.

You notice the title said "fiction works" as opposed to "novels." I sometimes struggle with series, and I read parts of 5 series this year. Some of the series were basically a collection of stand-alone novels where it's easy to decide which you like better, and I count each of those novels separately. However, two series were actually big multi-part stories, and one was similar enough in style that I counted those series as a single entry.

One enjoyable thing about this year is that I was able to resume three series that didn't have any new books in them for 4-5 years, including two of my all time favorite series.
As usual, this list is in alphabetic order by title.

1. Act Of Valor by Dana Mentink (True Blue K-9 Unit, part 2). I loved the villain in this story. I also learned that Beagle is French for Big Mouth.
   
2. Against All Fierce Hostility by Donna Fletcher Crowe (The Monastery Murders, part 6). Felecity witnessed a murder in England. But she and her husband Father Antony don't have to worry about the killer as they take a scenic train across Canada. You wouldn't expect the murderer to cross the ocean with them, would you?
   
3. Amish Werewolves of Space by Kerry Nietz (Peril In Plain Space, part 3). Would you believe this series is serious sci-fi? Would you believe it is a good book on building community? If not, it's obvious you haven't read this great series yet. Shame on you. And my tongue is in its proper position as I'm typing this, not in my cheek as you'd suppose.
   
4. Blind Trust by Laura Scott (True Blue K-9 Unit, part 3). A dog trainer who's losing her eyesight is working on a puppy to be her guide dog ... till it gets kidnapped. Good thing a handsome police officer and his Golden Lab are up to the task.
   
5. Cards on the Table by Agatha Chrisie. One of four Poirot novels I read this year (three by Christie, plus the first written by Sophie Hannah). The Belgian detective with three other good guys are invited to dinner by a flamboyant troublemaker with his "tiger collection": four people he considers to be murderers who got away with it. Of course, you know what one problem with a tiger collection is, don't you?
   
6. Cat-groomer Mysteries, parts 1 and 2 (The Persian Always Meows Twice, The Bengal Identity) by Eileen Watkins. A delightful mystery series. Not Christian fiction, but safe reading.
   
7. Dead End by Nancy Mehl (Kaely Quinn Profiler, part 3). The nail biting conclusion of this suspenseful series, where Kaley confronts her serial killer father during a string of copy-cat murders.
   
8. Fatal Reunion by Jessica Patch. Piper runs a karate studio. She can take care of herself. She doesn't need God or her policeman ex-boyfriend. Right? You aren't buying that either?
   
9. The Firebrand Chronicles, parts 2 and 3 (Flare, Burn) by J. M. Hackman. I loved this YA fantasy series, which focuses on Brenna James and includes my hero, the gryphon Arvandus.
   
10. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie. Was the mother guilty of the murder she was executed for over a decade ago? Her daughter asks Poirot to solve this, with Poirot interviewing the five eyewitnesses to what happened.
    
11. Seeking The Truth by Terri Reed (True Blue K-9 Unit, part 5). No spoilers here, but this was my favorite in this series (I read installments #2-7 of this 8 part series).
    
12. Tales of Faeraven, parts 3 and 4 (Sojourner, Dawn King) by Janalyn Voigt. An exciting conclusion to this fantasy series.

How many of these books have you read? Any that you'd like to try? Any novels you loved reading?

BOOK REVIEW: THE TRUE BLUE K-9 UNIT SERIES (VARIOUS AUTHORS)

 

 Starting with this note - I have read six of the ten parts of this series. I missed the opening prequel and first novel as well as the final two. The ones I read were:

• Act of Valor by Dana Mentink,
• Blind Trust by Laura Scott,
• Deep Undercover by Lenora Worth,
• Seeking the Truth by Terri Reed,
• Trail of Danger by Valerie Hansen, and 
• Courage Under Fire by Sharon Dunn.

I find novel series fall into three categories:

1. A series of stand-alone novels that have a common setting and recurring characters where you can read them in any order and still enjoy them.
2. A series where each book is an installment that stands on its own with an over-arching story that connects the three into a unit.
3. One big story broke up into several different books.

This series is somewhere between one and two. Each is a story with its own hero, heroine, main villain, and K-9 star, with a clear resolution at the end. However, this series also deals with the murder of the unit's chief, Jordan Jameson, and the search for his missing dog Snapper. That big story picks up more and more steam starting with part 6 - Seeking The Truth. Also, you see the same characters pop up through the series, and each story ends with a hint of what the next story will deal with. Considering its 11 stories are written by 9 different authors, you have a well done set.

One fascinating thing is that there are several different breeds of dogs throughout the series: German Shepherds, a Beagle, a couple of Labs, a Springer Spaniel, a Bloodhound, and a Rottweiler in the mix. No, these dogs don't have the same responsibilities as each other. Some are trackers, some sniff for drugs or explosives, as well as those who catch and bring down the crooks.

Yes, you have a male writer who is hooked on Harlequin's Love Inspired Suspense. But I really have enjoyed this series.