Troubled Pursuit, Book 6 of the Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries

Troubled Pursuit, Book 6 of the Jessica Anderson k-9 Mysteries
Copyright 2023 D. L. Keur, zentao.com and DLKeur.com

RELEASED: July 12, 2023

AVAILABLE AT AMAZON IN EBOOK (3.99) and PRINT.  Also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited!

Jessie & her dogs step right into the crosshairs of the desperate.

Missing kids, a missing mom, and a headless cadaver confound the Office of the Sheriff and lead Jessie and her dogs deep into the wilderness in search of someone determined not to be found. But the kids are there. So is the killer.

The story of a woman and her beloved dogs who keep on trying, though time is running out.

Clean, safe reading
No sex, gore, or profanity.

(And–spoiler alert–yes, dear reader, absolutely no dog dies in this book, either.)

NO AI content, guaranteed. All original D. L. Keur.

NOTE TO FANS: This is an ongoing series. It doesn’t stop here.

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Mysteries are mental mazes, and this one had me going …and going. First, I couldn’t see the connection …and, even when the characters made the connection for me, it took till the end for me to slap my forehead and groan. Well done, D. L. Keur. And, as usual, the book tears at your heart and makes you laugh, too. And then, of course, there’s the consequences to BOTH my dog’s and my diet. The food!! Beware the food scenes! —L. L. Alexander, freelance editor

I am so glad that somebody believes in good and, no matter what, kept going to find the missing. I was so afraid, but, when the end came, the rewards were worth the nail-biting tension. A really good read! —Joanne Robinson, mystery lover

I think what I like best about this author’s work is that the handling is consistently real. I went back and read the first four that I had not read before being asked to beta read number 5, Dead Falls, and reading that in beta, before editing, I was hooked. So when number six came my way, I jumped in. This author knows her world, her characters, and the life and story situations are so real it makes one wonder if this isn’t actually non-fiction dressed as fiction. I really feel like, were I to travel to Idaho and chase them down, they’d be there real-time. Troubled Pursuit is an excellent book and a great continuation of a great series. —Mark Peterson, crime and mystery reader

Book 2 of The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries is in the Works

After a small hiatus due to a very close friend developing some serious medical issues, I’m back doing what I’m supposed to be doing–finishing book 2 of The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries. The title has (almost) been locked in. It’s to be called Stray Trouble, and here’s the tentative cover for it.

Right now, I’m working through the final manuscript …about a month behind my original schedule, but, as they say, yes, life gets in the way, sometimes, especially when it’s one of your best friends who is in trouble. Once the manuscript is what I call ‘author final’, I’ll be sending it on to my editors. Once back from them, I’ll hit publish on Amazon for you, I promise.

In other news, you’ll be pleased to know that, in the down time, I did get book 3 almost completely drafted. I’ve got some holes to fill, and everything is always subject to change, but it’s already a pretty solid book.

One of the challenges I had writing Book 2, aside from my friend’s dive into medical malaise, was the fact that search and rescue situations, especially those involving crimes, tend toward ‘situation-and-resolve’, so suspending the mystery for an entire book while maintaining tension can prove tricky. I think I’ve again managed to pull it off in book 2, but we’ll let you all decide that.

And so, here’s a sneak peek at the cover.

Book 2 of The Jessica Anderson K-9 Mysteries by D. L. Keur

And so what happened to the audio of Book 1? Well, that went south with aforementioned friend’s illness. It’s on drive, but I still have a good solid ten chapters of sound files to listen to and edit before it goes to mastering it for distribution. Who knows, I may never get that done, because writing the books comes first.

A New Series in the Making

Yes.  That’s right.  I’m writing a new fiction series.

No.  I’m not going to tell you much about it, yet.  It will be a surprise.

But I will share this: It features a female protagonist.  It’s set in today’s rural West (as in U.S. West), but, unlike Through Better & Worse and To Have & To Hold, it’s NOT a Western Family Saga, and it’s certainly not Modern Western Romance.  It’s got absolutely no profanity and no sex.  It’s got no ‘gruel’ — no gratuitous cruelty, gore, and/or barbarism.

Will you like it?  I think a lot of people will, yes.

Why am I writing it?  Because I need something in my catalog that will appeal to a broader audience than my more literary efforts.

I write good books.  But, unfortunately, what I’ve published doesn’t fit neatly into a genre.  This series will, though.  This series will fit right into one major fiction genre that people love.

More later.

Mystery Cover

 

Site Updates and Upgrades in Progress

Yeah. I know. It’s about time, huh! So, I’m working on EJRuek.com and CountryJames.com, then it will be DLKeur.com right after. Then, I’ll see about revitalizing Aeros’ site. Meanwhile, I did release another E. J. Ruek book. I just never got around to posting it up here on this, my main website. It’s titled Slightly Disturbing Stories and those folks who’ve read it seem to really, really like it.



Pondering Why I Write

I had an interesting discussion last night that made me think about the books I’ve written, the published and those sitting in files, real and virtual. An author friend, Laura Belgrave, whose website I manage, admitted that, yes, her books matter to her. I admired that when she said it.

I’m not sure why, but, for me, while the books I’ve written and published delight me when I happen to reread them, I don’t place them as ‘important’ in things I actively care about most: my husband, the animals I care for, the land and trees, friends, my husband’s musical compositions and his instruments, my brain, body, knowledge and skills, maintaining my father’s house, my own musical instruments….

The books I’ve written? They’re just things I’ve done and released into the world. So, too, when it comes to my artwork, and my musical performances.

Laura’s caring about her creative works in contrast to my own curious attitude about my creative outputs gives me pause to wonder at myself. It especially makes me wonder why I write.

I do feel quite happy, even proud, of the books I’ve self-published (not, though, the ones previously published by others). In my opinion, my books — the ones I’ve authored without interference from money men — are very good, despite errors missed in editing, some due to Microsoft Word’s auto word-replace penchant, errors that I should, but don’t, make the time and effort to go back and fix. They’re great stories, written with passion and skill. So why, I wonder, don’t I place them high on my ‘most valued’ list?

I’m not sure of the answer to that question, but I think it might be something of the zentaoist in me. Those books, though brought into existence by my hand, exist completely independently of me, their author. They are, in essence, each their own entity once created. I own copyright, but they are not me, nor I, them. I certainly delight when someone enjoys them, but not because I wrote them. Rather, it is a delight in someone appreciating them, the books themselves, and the animals, aliens, and people, that live within their pages.

And, now, I think I’ve touched on something pertinent: I write to bring the characters within to life, so you, too, can meet, greet, and appreciate them, whether they’re people, animals, the land and its lore, or aliens from other worlds and cosmoi.