Before It’s Too Late – Sara Driscoll
In this powerful K-9 crime thriller, FBI Special Agent Meg Jennings and her trusted search-and-rescue Labrador, Hawk, must race against the clock before a diabolical killer strikes again…
Somewhere in the Washington, D.C., area, a woman lies helpless in a box. Beneath the earth. Barely breathing. Buried alive. In Quantico, the FBI receives a coded message from the woman’s abductor. He wants to play a game with them: decipher the clues, find the grave, save the girl. The FBI’s top cryptanalysts crack the code and Special Agent Meg Jennings and her K-9 partner, Hawk, scramble to the scene of the crime. Cryptic clues lead them astray and by the time they solve the puzzle, it’s too late. But the killer’s game is far from over . . .
Soon another message arrives. Another victim is taken, and the deadly pattern is repeated—again and again. Each kidnapping triggers another desperate race against time, each with the possibility of another senseless death. That’s when Meg decides to try something drastic. Break the Bureau’s protocol. Bring in her brilliant sister, Cara, a genius at word games, to decipher the kidnapper’s twisted clues. Meg knows she’s risking her career to do it, but she’s determined not to let one more person die under her and Hawk’s watch. If the plan fails, it could bite them in the end. And if it leads to the killer, it could bury them forever . . .
My thanks to Jen Danna and Kensington Books for a review copy, received through Netgalley.
Last year I reviewed the first FBI K-9 novel Lone Wolf and fell in love with a fictional labrador called Hawk. Hawk is a search and rescue dog working for the FBI in the canine unit, his handler is Special Agent Meg Jennings and together they make a formidable team. Lone Wolf saw the duo on the track of a bomber who was targeting government buildings and it was a powerful and engaging read.
Meg and Hawk are back for a second outing in Before it’s too Late and this time the action is taking place much closer to home.
The FBI receive a coded message – a woman has been kidnapped and if the FBI can crack the code in the message then they will be able to locate the missing woman and rescue her. If they don’t solve the puzzle in good time the woman will die. A game from the kidnapper with a deadly twist.
Meg and Hawk are involved in the chase to rescue the woman but their chances of success are slim. When a cryptic clue throws the FBI off track it is too late to save the woman. Meg takes the failure hard but the kidnapper/killer is not done yet and a second woman is abducted, the alert is raised when her dog is spotted running free.
I am avoiding plot spoilers but suffice to say Meg becomes close to the action as she blames herself for not saving the first kidnap victim and she will not rest until she sees the killer brought to justice.
The FBI K9 novels have been a welcome and refreshing addition to my kindle. I love the dynamic between Meg and Hawk (and the other dogs which appear through the stories). After the thrill of hunting the bomber in Lone Wolf, the change to a sadistic killer in Before it’s too Late was equally welcome as I love a serial killer tale.
I hope that more FBI K9 stories shall follow, not enough dogs in my crime fiction and these warm my heart.
Before it’s too Late is published by Kensington and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Its-Late-F-B-I-Novel-ebook/dp/B01N7NZL8T/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8