Smoky Mountain Tracks (©2006)

by Donna Ball

Hanover County, North Carolina, nestled in the Smoky Mountains, is home to Raine Stockton, the estranged wife of Deputy Sheriff Buck Lawson. She is a dog trainer extraordinaire and used to go on search and rescue missions but since her beloved canine Cassidy died, she hasn’t had the heart for it any longer. That is until she receives a frantic phone call at three in the morning from Buck asking her to take her SAR dog Cisco to help in the search for Cindy Winston and her daughter Angel. — When they fail to find them, she starts to return home when Cisco and Raine trip over the murdered body of Luke Pickens, a drug user and alcoholic, who kidnapped the two females but no proof of Cindy or Angel, is nearby. Cindy walks home to her mother’s house injured by a bullet Luke put in her with no idea where Angel is. Upset that Cisco failed to find the missing girl, Raine

starts asking questions, discovers that the whole episode might have to do with a land deal and continues to use her SAR canine to hunt for clues in Angel’s disappearance.