Crow River Mercy (Crow River Mysteries)
Buddy is back on the prowl in Book 2 of this genre-bending Crow River Mystery series. Mystery and fantasy collide as this reincarnated criminal lawyer investigates crime in Crow River while challenging human morality.
Crow River Mercy takes a darker turn with a growing body count of both animals and humans. Deeply emotional and at sometimes, shockingly cruel, Buddy the kitten must survive love and loss while investigating murders during an epidemic that threatens all the forest animals.
Adding to his distress is the new roommate, Mercy, also known as Sergeant Pupster, a retired military service dog suffering from PTSD and haunted by her violent past, who must learn to navigate a new world before being accepted into the local police force. Can she control the growing violence instincts?
Crow River Mercy picks up after Crow River Justice. Buddy and Floosy, the two kittens, have a calm and predictable home until Mercy arrives. She is a potentially violent German Shepherd military service dog with PTSD complicated by grief over her military handler's death by a sniper bullet. Jules wants to give Mercy a chance. Buddy is not confident about the proposed treatment. And while both kittens are worried about the potential for violence, Mercy becomes a vehicle through which they can escape the house to investigate crime.
On the first trip out, two gunshots are heard. The investigation leads to the discovery of two victims. The first is the murder of a recently killed doe, the mother of the deer sisters, Darling and Blossom. They also discover a rabid beaver, who drops dead outside his lodge, and then the long-dead body of a local criminal, Eric Berman, hidden in a beaver lodge.
The lodge's owner has scratched Buddy's feral father, Karl, who must be quarantined at the local wildlife clinic. The rest of the animal community confronts the risk and whether to accept vaccinations from the clinic vet, Doc Cox.
Buddy, Floosy, and Mercy work together to assist Buddy's daughter, Jules, with her partner, Officer Ian McKenzie, in identifying and questioning potential suspects, but all have alibis.
Mercy's nose scents the murderer of the Doe, who admits to hunting out of season for food.
The investigation turns its attention to the Spencer house, which sits above the beaver lodge. DNA identifies that the human victim fathered a child with Jemma Spencer, an elderly lady suffering from severe dementia and pneumonia. Her daughter from that union, Cherry, returns home to care for her mother. Cherry's son is also the deceased soldier who was Mercy's handler.
At the climax, Karl escapes quarantine and is fatally struck by an ATV. Mercy turns violent but shows Karl compassion when she puts Karl out of his misery. Jules doesn't understand and immediately puts the dog down.
Forensic evidence establishes Jemma as the murderer. But is she even competent to stand trial, now and at the end of her life? The system shows her mercy, but in her last moments of life, Jemma acknowledges she was fully aware when she shot Eric.
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