Fighting Edge
Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries Book 11
Margaret Mizushima
Crooked Lane Books
September 2026
Fighting Edge by Margaret Mizushima once again offers the perspective of police work alongside a K-9 partner. There are always tidbits about dogs that adds an extra layer of authenticity and intrigue.
“I had the idea years and years ago. There’s a great Colorado author named Peg Brantley, who wrote a book Trafficked. She and I had attended many of the same workshops where FBI agents and law enforcement agents talked about human trafficking. I just put the idea in my back pocket, because I didn’t want to follow her writing the book Trafficked, which was about sex trafficking. I had decided I wanted to highlight labor trafficking, because I don’t think it’s as well known or as well spotlighted. So, after I moved here to Washington, I met a retired FBI agent who told me about a case on an island near the Washington coast. A man who had immigrated from Mexico set up a pipeline of human smuggling bringing in teenagers to be labor trafficked. He would also peel off some of the girls to be sex trafficked. This man was tried and convicted, and it set the stage for all my thoughts about human trafficking and organized crime.”
This story has sub-plots that seem to have unrelated crimes with sinister ramifications. First, Deputy Mattie Walker is sent on a routine welfare check. It becomes a nightmare when she finds a young mother dead and a hysterical toddler, possibly the only witness to a brutal crime. Before the investigative team can start piecing together what happened, Mattie discovers another criminal act in Timber Creek.
“Deadly hemlock is not like the tree that grows out here in the Pacific Northwest. Deadly hemlock in Colorado is more like a bush. One of my friends mentioned that she had spotted deadly hemlock in an irrigation ditch that went through her property, and she was so upset, and there was a mitigation, so she had called the county to come and get rid of it. But that got me to research deadly hemlock in Colorado, and finding out what the plant really looked like, and I tucked them away in my brain that someday I can use that in a book, which I did in this book.”
During a traffic stop for speeding, Mattie observes a nervous driver and a teenage passenger frozen with fear. A quick sweep of the car with her K-9 partner, Robo, reveals a dangerous mix of drugs. She suspects human trafficking, when the teenage boy in the car is unresponsive. Mattie arrests the driver and she places the teenager in protective custody, while the sheriff’s department hands the case over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
“I wrote a description of human trafficking in the book. A vulnerable teen can find themselves caught up in being exploited. Many of the cases are domestic. Kids who’ve been abused, kids who run away, and are picked up on the street, kids with addiction, there are lots of risk factors. But the thing they have in common is that the people who force them into the industry of slave labor have also brainwashed them to be afraid of law enforcement. That’s one thing that all the FBI agent presentations that I’ve attended, they all talk about that. And many of them do use victim canines to help these kids relax a little bit and make friends with the dog so that they are more willing to talk about their experience. This is one of the things that makes it very difficult for human trafficking task forces to go in and rescue kids is because sometimes they are opposed to recognizing law enforcement as their protectors and friends. This is why I put in the book, Dawn and her dog, Half Pint, to be able to get these kids to tell their story, and to recognize that people just want to help them.”
Meanwhile, Mattie’s new husband, Cole, a veterinarian, is dealing with Butch, a strangely aggressive Rottweiler.
“It’s been interesting as a veterinarian’s wife, many times my husband is asked about good breeds for protection dogs. And so, I thought this was a great place to be able to have that discussion about the responsibility of raising a breed that has a high prey drive, and is very protective, because sometimes that can end in not a very good outcome. So, I wanted to spell out or highlight how any dog that is willing to bark can be an alarm system in the home, so, people might not really need to have a guard dog. But if you choose to have a guard dog, or one of these more aggressive breeds, it’s a big responsibility in protecting children, guests into the home, other pets, and other animals. These dogs need to be very well socialized, and very well trained.”
All these sub-plots come together at the end making for an interesting storyline.
