Breaking Creed

Starred review from November 17, 2014
Bestseller Kava introduces Ryder Creed, who has started his own search-dog business after serving in a K9 unit in the Marines, in this superior introduction to a new thriller series. In the Gulf of Mexico, off Pensacola, Fla., Creed and his team inspect a commercial fishing vessel, which the authorities suspect is being used to smuggle drugs. Unexpectedly, one of Creedâs dogs uncovers human cargo hidden in the holdâfive filthy children who appear to be Americans. Meanwhile, FBI agent Maggie OâDell, the star of the authorâs other series (Stranded, etc.), tries to identify a floater found in the Potomac with marks of torture. OâDell and Creed later unite in Alabama to search the property of another murder victim, who may have been tied to stakes in the ground atop a mound of fire ants. Romance fans will enjoy following how the attraction between OâDell and Creed plays out. Dog lovers will also find a lot to like. Author tour. Agent: Scott Miller, Trident Media.

December 1, 2014
Kava spins off dog trainer Ryder Creed, introduced as a subordinate character in her Maggie O'Dell novel Stranded (2013), into his own series. FBI Agent O'Dell appears here, too, working a multiple-murder case, but it's Creed who takes center stage, as what was supposed to be a routine search for drugs concealed on a boat leads Ryder to make a decision that could change his own life and that of a young girl, assuming he can keep both himself and the girl alive. Creed is a very well designed characterunlike O'Dell, he's not a law-enforcement professionaland readers who enjoyed his appearance in Stranded (he played a small role, as though the author were testing the waters) will definitely want to check out his first full-length story. There are some very nice twists and turns, and, for O'Dell's fans, Maggie's appearance here is a lot more than window dressing. Kava proves here that she's not a one-character writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)