Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Release Date: June 29, 2021
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Mason “Mace” Reid lives
on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in human remains
detection—that is, he trains dogs to hunt for dead bodies. He calls his
pack of cadaver dogs The Finders, and his prize pupil is a golden
retriever named Vira.
When Mace Reid and Vira are called in to
search Washington Park at three o'clock in the morning, what they find
has them running for their very lives. The trail of murder and mayhem
Mace and CPD Officer Kippy Gimm have been following leads them to
uncover treachery and corruption at the highest level, and their
discoveries do not bode well for them . . . nor for the Windy City
itself.
The Keepers is the second installment in author Jeffrey B. Burton's Mace Reid K-9 Mystery series. Mason (Mace) Reid lives outside of Chicago and trains dogs with various end goals such as obedience and missing persons tracking, as well as searching for drugs and explosives. However, his specialty is training dogs in human remains detection (HRD or cadaver dogs). His dogs include Sue, Delta Dawn, Billie Joe, Maggie, May and Elvira aka Vira.
If you've caught onto the fact that Mace loves to name his dogs after famous songs, you'd be correct. Mace's most accomplished cadaver dog is a golden retriever named Vira, who "takes the art of human remains detection to the next level the Sherlock Holmes level." Vira is truly special. She can smell the murderer’s scent on a dead body. Of course, only a few special people know this and Mace isn’t about to tell others.
He is often called in to help the Chicago Police Department and local sheriff’s departments. His relationship with Officer Kippy Grim is that of friends who don't want to rush into any long term arrangement. Especially after Mace's ex literally walked out on him and is now marrying someone else. As the story opens, Mace and his golden retriever Vira are called to the apartment of an aging rock star named Jonny Whiting, whose head has been bashed in with a guitar.
Vira
does her Sherlock Holmes thing, and Mace and Vira help Officer Kippy
Gimm and her partner Officer Dave Wabiszewki (Wabs) solve the case. After
nabbing the Whiting murderer, Mace, Vira, Kippy, and Wabs get involved
in another case. This one focuses on the murder of Special Prosecutor
Peter Feist, who's been trying to root out corruption in Chicago. The
Feist inquiry has tendrils that extend to Chicago mobsters and
nefarious government officials, which makes things VERY dangerous for
the investigative team.
The bad guys are exceptionally capable foes, and there's plenty of intrigue and action in the book. Although
most of the novel was told from Mace’s perspective, there are a few
sections that would be narrated by one or more of villains. The dark
revelations of Chicago’s crime-powered leaders was interesting and
likely, all too realistic. It shouldn't shock or surprise anyone by the corruption and the dark underworld of Chicago. All you have to do is go back to the times of Al Capone to see that nothing is changed, especially when prosecutors no longer do their jobs and arrest those who break the law.
The characters are mostly carryovers from Burton’s first installment, The Finders. So in order to get the full flavor of the main actors, it is best that the reader start with the first novel in the series.
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