7. The Loot by Craig Schaefer

#1 Charlie McCabe

listened on Audible

2019
329 pgs.
Adult Mystery Series
Finished 1/26/22
Goodreads rating: 4.08
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Boston & suburbs

My comments: A female explosives expert returns from eight years duty in Afghanistan and joins a private security company.  Of course, her trial and first experience with the company has her (successfully) dealing with a bomb. There are lots and lots of ludicrous, longshot kind of figuring-out-clues that would never happen  Oh well.  It was fast paced and interesting, and somewhat believable.  Yes, I'd read more of these, I liked the main characters.

Goodreads synopsis:  She fought for her country. Now she’s fighting for her family.

When Sergeant Charlie McCabe returns from fighting in Afghanistan, she hopes to leave the war behind. Instead, she comes home to a father whose gambling has put him in deep trouble with a violent loan shark. She finds work as a professional bodyguard, but to save her father, she needs to get serious cash together fast.

However, her father isn’t the only one who needs saving. When Charlie’s first client—a wealthy executive with a shady past—narrowly escapes a bomb plot, Charlie’s investigation leads her into the heart of Boston’s criminal underworld. Along the way, she stumbles upon clues about a diamond heist gone wrong that’s been unsolved for decades.

With the clock ticking and chaos descending, Charlie sees a solution to both problems, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be pretty. A “normal” life may await Charlie on the other side of this mess, but part of her knows that the battle has just begun.

87. A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier

(#1 Mercy Carr & Elvis/ Vermont)/
listened to audio / Chirp
read by Kathleen McInerney
Unabridged audio (11:58)
2018 Minotaur Books
342 pgs.
Contemporary Adult Mystery/Murder Mystery
Finished 9/10/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 908 ratings
My rating:3.5
Setting: Contemporary southern Verment

First line/s:   "Grief and guilt are the ghosts that haunt you when you survive what others do not."

My comments:   Greatly enjoyed the setting, contemporary small town southern Vermont.  The two protagonists, a fresh-out-of-the-service in Afghanistan army vet female and a male Vermont game warden both own K-9 dogs and much of the story revolves around their partnerships.   Another central character, Mercy's grandmother, is the local vet.  It's just all a little to doggy for me.  It was an interesting mystery, though a little unbelievable in places.  I enjoyed listening to it.  It's the same narrator that reads the Kate Burkholder Amish mystery series, a wonderful reader.

Goodreads synopsis:  First in a gripping new mystery series about a retired MP and her bomb-sniffing dog who become embroiled in an investigation in the beautiful Vermont wilderness
It may be the Fourth of July weekend, but for retired soldiers Mercy Carr and Belgian Malinois Elvis, it’s just another walk in the remote Lye Brook Wilderness—until the former bomb-sniffing dog alerts to explosives and they find a squalling baby abandoned near a shallow grave filled with what appear to be human bones. U.S. Game Warden Troy Warner and his search-and rescue Newfoundland Susie Bear respond to Mercy’s 911 call, and the four must work together to track down a missing mother, solve a cold-case murder, and keep the citizens of Vermont safe on potentially the most incendiary Independence Day since the American Revolution.
          A Borrowing of Bones is full of complex twists and real details about search-and-rescue dog training that Paula learned through the training of her own dog. With its canine sidekicks and rich, dramatic story, this debut will be a must-have for mystery fans.