Blind Bloodhound Justice

Lanier's fourth spine-tingling foray into Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp with dog trainer Jo Beth Sidden and her crew lives up to the promise of her debut, Death in Bloodhound Red (1995). As part of his medical parole, convicted slayer Samuel Debbs has to report to Sheriff Hank Cribbs. Debbs says he didn't commit the crime for which he received a life sentence--a double murder during a kidnapping 30 years ago. Not willing to reopen the case but curious about the crime, Hank taps Jo Beth's avid curiosity, tempting her to look into the case. As she balances her job as a trainer and tracker (with one particularly harrowing search in the swamp for a mother and baby), Jo Beth reads the files on the case. She learns that two baby girls were snatched from a nursemaid, and that one of babies and the nanny were killed. Debbs was arrested and convicted; later, when the wealthy father of the surviving girl died, she became ward of the slain child's dad. He and the now grown woman are returning to Georgia. Jo Beth visits Debbs, who shakes her conviction in his guilt. Like the bloodhounds she trains, Jo Beth tracks down everyone involved in the case and finally locates the truth. Lanier shows an increasing mastery of plot and pacing to complement the established sass-appeal of the endearingly ornery Jo Beth. (July)