October 1, 2021
The FBI's K-9 specialists go after the illegal trade in conflict diamonds. Dogs can't sniff out diamonds, of course, but they can be trained to follow undercover FBI agents who've been embedded in the Mafia but would be executed if they were found carrying tracking devices. So the Bureau's Kate Moore wants to borrow Meg Jennings and Brian Foster and their dogs, Hawk and Lacey, to keep tabs on Special Agent Finn Pierce, who's gone undercover with the Philadelphia mob as Angelo Marzano. Meg, who's just moved into a D.C. duplex with her partner, firefighter/paramedic Todd Webb--the neighbors in the other half are Meg's sister, dog trainer Cara, and her own partner, Washington Post reporter Clay McCord--is eager to work again with Brian, who's been away from the job nursing Lacey, who saved his life in Leave No Trace (2020). And she seems to enjoy a tourist's-eye view of Philly, whose highlights range from the Liberty Bell to the Rocky steps outside the art museum. In fact, all the trappings (conscientious expository passages on the heroine's home life and the city she's visiting, nuggets of information about diamonds, and lots of dogs) would mark this as a cozy if the franchise character didn't work for the FBI, confront ruthless professional criminals in violent set pieces, and sustain significant physical damage. No sooner has Meg decisively repelled the mobster who's invaded her home, for instance, than Clay follows a lead too far for comfort and falls into the clutches of a capo who's happy to torture him for information. Love it or hate it, Driscoll's niche--think Margaret Truman meets the mob--is all her own.
COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 25, 2021
In Driscoll’s straightforward sixth FBI K9 mystery (after 2020’s Leave No Trace), the FBI assigns two agents and their canines who ordinarily do search and rescue—Meg Jennings and her dog, Hawk, and Meg’s partner, Brian Foster, and his dog, Lacey—to a case involving blood diamonds (“Diamonds mined and sold to finance a war or a warlord”). The FBI has an undercover agent, Finn Pierce, planted inside the Philadelphia Mafia, but Finn is having trouble busting the mobsters selling the diamonds because the transactions happen so fast. The plan is for Meg and Brian, posing as dog walkers, to follow the undercover agent with Hawk and Lacey to the locations where the sales are taking place and arrest the crooks in the act. They make several attempts that come close, but not close enough. The stakes rise when the Mafia comes after Meg in her home—and it turns out there are more than the gems involved. At times, too much information about blood diamonds and the Mafia slows the pace. Those looking for a simple, clean story will be satisfied. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency.