Murder Creek — Donna Ball

Book #14 in the Award-Winning Raine Stockton Dog Mystery SeriesRaine Stockton knows dogs, not kids. Nonetheless, she is supremely confident in her ability to take care her fiancé's ten year old daughter, Melanie, for a week while he is out of town. After all, how hard could it be?But things get complicated when Raine and her golden retriever, Cisco, rescue a dog who is locked in a hot car in a remote Smoky Mountain park... and subsequently discover the owner of that car drowned in the creek only a few dozen yards away. Was it an accident, or was it murder?Raine is certain that she recognizes the abandoned dog from her puppy training class six years ago. Mere months later, the dog, along with his three-year-old owner, disappeared from the child's bedroom during the night and were never seen again. Now the dog is back, and Raine is convinced his reappearance might hold the key to the truth about the missing child. The problem is that no one believes her.While Raine tries to unravel the mystery of the abandoned dog's past-and a six-year-old missing child case-her ex-husband, criminal investigator Buck Lawson, opens an investigation into the death of the man in whose car the dog was found. He soon finds himself involved in another cold case, one that leads him from an apparent serial killer in Florida to a murder in his own hometown.The one thing that ties the two cases together is the dog whose shadowy history opens the door to questions better left unasked, and whose answers may prove to be deadly. But when lives are in danger, it is up to Raine and Cisco to track down the truth, even though it means risking someone she loves.