While “Track Her Down” is the ninth book in Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggert series, like all the mysteries featuring sheriff Taggert, it works well as a stand alone novel. Of course, starting with the first mystery gives readers a chance to understand Taggert’s whole backstory and how she came to be the sheriff in upstate New York. But each mystery, featuring, of course, a murder that Taggert must solve, provides enough about all the main characters to ensure a satisfying read, and each mystery is unique enough to keep our interest.

This mystery might just be one of the most thrilling of all the novels to date in the series because one of the “victims” of the murderer, the victim who survives, is the daughter of the couple murdered in their bed. And that’s just in the first chapter. Teenager Claire Mason finds her parents slaughtered in their bedroom when she arrives home from her part-time job. The chapter ends as, after Claire calls 911, the dispatch operator asks her if the killer could still be in the house. Of course we are going to keep reading.

Bree Taggert works in Randolph County, where she had moved to care for her niece and nephew after their mother, Bree’s sister, was killed. Matt Flynn is a former deputy who handled a K9 before an unfortunate incident ended his career. He now works as an independent investigator for the county and helps Bree in her investigations. He is also her boyfriend, and over the course of the series, we have watched as their relationship develops.

In this murder case, Bree and the other detectives are stumped. The murder victims are investigated, and what Taggert and her team find out is that the couple’s lives were fake. They were not the lawyers they proclaimed themselves to be. In fact, it turns out that they were scammers and had a well-developed charity scam that was fruitful enough to fund their rather expensive lifestyle. The question Bree and the others must answer is why the couple were killed.

And when it turns out that someone is attempting to harm their adopted daughter Claire, more questions arise. After the midpoint of the story, Leigh keeps the twists coming nonstop. There are seemingly unrelated events, pieces of the puzzle, that Leigh masterfully places on the table without any connections to the other pieces. But one by one, she adds a piece here and a piece there, forming a complete picture as surely as any complex puzzle.

Leigh’s love of animals comes through all the novels in this series. It’s touching to read about Taggert’s loving dog Ladybug, who was really Leigh’s dog in real life and who recently passed away. Leigh is a big advocate of rescuing dogs, and Matt Flynn’s sister, another character in the series, runs a dog rescue and is adamant and dogged (pardon the pun) in her determination to help animals in need. We all root for Greta, the K9 who had been an unadoptable stray when Matt realized her potential to be a police dog.

Bree Taggert makes a wonderful main character as Leigh demonstrates Bree’s determination, frank nature, and lack of political acumen, but also her vulnerability. Her nephew is the same age as Claire, and her heart breaks for the young woman who has lost her family just as Taggert lost her family as a young girl. But when you are the sheriff, you can’t allow your emotions to overtake running an investigation which must be based on facts and evidence. The twist at the end and the action throughout are both extremely compelling, and Leigh makes it all work. While she’s created characters who exemplify the best of human nature, she also gives us a dark look at those who do not.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.