The living and the dead—her dogs keep finding them.
Rape, abduction, and multiple victims dead from unknown causes confound the Bitterroot County Sheriff’s Office until Jessie’s dogs uncover a connection to an even bigger case. Jessie and her pack are on task and tracking, but what they’re tracking could make Jessie the prime target for revenge.
The story of a woman and her beloved pack of search dogs who will stop at nothing to protect their own.
Clean, safe reading
No sex, gore, or profanity.
(And–spoiler alert–yes, dear reader, absolutely no dog dies in this book, either.)
NOTE TO FANS: This is an ongoing series. It doesn’t stop here. Book 6 is already in progress.
Reading the series in order is recommended. The first four Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries books are available at Amazon in both print and eBook format
They are:
Somebody who loves The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries and wants to give them away to friends for Christmas—Thanks for the idea, Audrey—suggested I make a box set like other authors do …so I did. Unfortunately, I can’t make print book box sets. Amazon doesn’t have that capability …yet, though they say they might in the future. But I can do an eBook box set, so I did. The first three books are now available in one eBook box set that saves you money—the first three books for only $9.99. Enjoy.
I keep getting asked—and thank you for asking in the comments and via email, because there isn’t any way for me to communicate with readers on Amazon, anymore—the series continues …because Jessie’s life with her SAR dogs continues. Book 5 is in the works, and there are presently 12 books planned, with a 13th sketched.
I’ve written novels from multiple points-of-view where there are a cast of many. These are plot-driven gallops: A Gathering of Rebels by Aeros (a novel published in two volumes because it was too big for one print book), and Created Evil by E. J. Ruek.
I’ve written novels with a single POV (point-of-view character), To Inherit a Murderer and Old Hickory Lane being examples of those which I’ve published myself.
Why write books with multiple points-of-view? First off, if a plot-driven story, you follow the plot by experiencing the story from the most potent perspective(s) possible, and plot dictates who that is. Second, and, to me, very important, is to be able to not just see a character from his or her perspective and attitudes, but to see him or her from another’s perspective, attitude, and experience.
Why both Jessica and Landon, though?
Jessica Anderson and Landon Reid,
copyright 2022 D. L. Keur, All rights reserved.
Through Jessica, we get to experience the moment-by-moment experience that is search and rescue. We get to feel her and her dogs. We get to witness her dogs respond to her as if right there with her. That’s important to me. …And you, I think.
Through Landon, we get to see Jessica and her dogs as another sees her and them, especially the dogs at work and in their dedication and loyalty. And vice versa—we get to see Landon through Jessie’s eyes, including her dogs’ reactions to him. Sure other characters give us insights into Jessica by their reactions, but we don’t get the hands-on focus that we do from another point-of-view character, especially one integral to the events occurring that drive the story and drive the characters in that story.
One of the ongoing comments and queries I get these days is: When will the next one be out? I get these before the just newly published book is even 24 hours old …which means some of you read really fast. Wow!
Answer: When I get done writing it, and my editors (of which there are three), my proof-readers (of which there are four), and my beta readers (of which there are also four, but a different four) get done.
A HUGE THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO TAKE THE TIME TO EMAIL
I cannot tell you what it means to a writer to have someone take the time and make the effort to reach out and share your thoughts, your joy, your questions, your perspectives …and your own stories about your lives and your dogs. It’s a huge uplift to my life, and I try to answer everybody. Apologies to anyone who gets or got missed. Email is a wonderful thing. Getting the app to behave and not bin the good stuff and not keep the spam stuff is a constant fight.
Copyright D. L. Keur 2022
How Many Books are Planned?
At least six, but I’ve scene sketched thirteen, now. It is an ongoing story, just as is each and every one of our own lives.
I’m writing number five right now and have the last book in the series in the works …in case I get run over by the driving duallies of a semi when making my way to the store. Then, all that has to happen is somebody has to push the button and you all will know the ‘end of the story’ …which I do leave tied up with a solid period …but, yes, it is but the potential beginning of the next, of course, because every end begets yet another beginning in both life and fiction. My literary mentor always told me that: “The end begets the beginning in everything we write,” and I’ve found that to be too true on both ends of a novel.
Addressing Some Grousing
First off: Landon and Jessica are written to be realistic people, not fairy tale figures. And in fact, they are both composites of people I know and have known. Just like everybody in every one of my novels, save maybe Created Evil, but, even then. So, yes, they are flawed, as well as gifted in their own ways. They have their idiosyncrasies and their foibles …just like we all do, and there are some things one may like about them and other things one may not …as it should be.
To those who grouse about grammatical errors in the book: We all (all of the above mentioned) do try, and these people are not slouches, but, invariably, after I hit the publish button and am reading the book on my Kindle or in my hand, there, bold as anything, my eye will catch yet another error.
One regular comment I get back from my helpers is ‘I got so immersed in the story that I don’t know if I caught everything’—high compliment, that, to a novelist.
And then there’s word processing programs.
I especially do NOT like certain programs that attempt to self-correct me, replacing words that I do mean with words the AI thinks I must mean. That happened in To Inherit a Murderer where Word exchanged my word ‘restrain’ with ‘sustain’ at the end of Chapter Three. Have I re-uploaded a corrected version of the book? I may have done so for the eBook, but not the print book. I’m not sure. Maybe, maybe not.
Then there’s spelling, of course. Though born in the USA, my dad was in the service, so I learned my ABCs and 123s in Europe, under British tutelage. Relearning American spellings was a chore, and then some.
Grammar, you ask? I learned my grammar under ‘old-fashioned’ (formal) schooling, not in slap-dash, anything goes ‘entertainment is education’ and ‘everybody gets a passing grade’ schools. My schooling, in primary and secondary schools, did include diagramming sentences, something I’m not sure is even done at the college level today, though I do hear it’s making a comeback in US public schools …or at least with parents of school-aged children.
And for those of you who don’t like my punctuation, hey, nobody can ever agree on anything, but I have dropped a lot of commas and semicolons from how I used to write, so some of you can count your blessings. Others not so much.
The old line from a song comes to mind: You can’t please everybody, so you have to please yourself, and I am completely selfish in that, if I like it, it stays.
