Dogged Pursuit
Lee Charles Kelley
Avon, July 2006, $6.99, 300 pp
ISBN 0060732295

In Maine, ex-detective and popular dog trainer Jack Field is looking forward to getting married to state medical examiner Dr. Jamie Cutler. Trouble comes in the form of his ex-girlfriend Kristen, who wants him to find her missing step-daughter, Jen. When a body is found in the water under the dock, Jack, as an unofficial assistant to Jamie is there, and he is relieved it is not Jen. He sees a light across the water and alerts the police who arrest Clay Henry.

Jack recalls a case with the same M.O., and the police ask him to get a confession out of the man who they believe killed twenty-one people, including possibly Jen's aunt. Jen witnessed the murder, and Henry was supposedly on the campus when she disappeared. Eventually, Henry confesses to everything but the number, and when Jen sees his picture, she says he isn't the man who killed her aunt.

Lee Charles Kelley has written an innovative and riveting mystery that takes the hero places he really doesn't want to go, but his sense of duty and honor makes him help the police and his girlfriend. Jack's love for dogs is so much in evidence that readers who have dogs of their own that they love, will totally understand his character. This author has the knack for intricate plotting and creative story lines starring likable protagonists.