Margaret Mizushima writes the award winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Active in the writing community, she is also a member of Sisters in Crime, Northern Colorado Writers, and Women Writing the West. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado to a home in the Pacific Northwest.
Q: How did the idea for this story come about?
Margaret: The idea came from the title, which I had first. When we were considering a title for the last book, Gathering Mist, my publisher came up with Dying Cry, which really did not match the plot of that book. He then asked me if I could write the next book that matched Dying Cry. I thought of the first scene in this book where Mattie, Cole, and his two daughters hear a cry coming from down canyon where they were snowshoeing with it echoing off the canyon.
Q: Cole’s oldest daughter, Angie, struggles with fear and trauma. What inspired that part of her story?
Margaret: Angie is traumatized in this book. She has some fear because of the past murder cases. She saw the danger that Mattie faced in Standing Dead and Gathering Mist. She has had a fear since the kidnapping of her younger sister in Hunting Hour. It has been accumulative for her with the fear she has about her family staying safe. She has anxiety, stress, and has put her emotions inward. In this book danger comes close to home where Cole and she are put in a very dangerous situation.
Q: How has Mattie’s life changed now that she’s married?
Margaret: She has moved into the home. Mattie has achieved her goal that was stated in book one of the series, to have a family. She has been searching and has found her own family in past books. She has love for Cole and his children. She sees her role as becoming their stepmom. Because their biological mother is not available in their lives and has neglected the relationship with them it is even more important to Mattie to be that mother for the girls. She must learn to gauge her stepdaughters’ emotions.
Q: How would you describe each of Cole’s daughters?
Margaret: Sophie, the youngest, is much easier to gauge. She is delighted to have Mattie as her stepmom and even calls her mom. Angie, a teenager, is more reserved and is more protective of her feelings.
Q: How has Robo’s life changed since Mattie and Cole’s marriage?
Margaret: Robo does have to adjust. He is now sleeping on a dog bed downstairs instead of sleeping right next to Mattie in the bed. In the past books he has been a visitor to the Walker home. He loves playing with Bruno, Cole’s younger male dog. Belle, his older dog, tolerates both. Robo is very attached to Mattie and knows he is her dog.
Q: The Ethics Hotline is an interesting part of the plot. Is that based on something real?
Margaret: I did get it from a person who does work in management of a bank in Colorado. Basically, it allows someone to snitch on their fellow workers or snitch on bank customers.
Q: Yoga also plays a role in the story. What made you include that element?
Margaret: I still do yoga but because of my back injuries I use a lot of props. For myself, yoga and the breath techniques help to manage stress. I introduced early in the books Rainbow as the yoga teacher. Mattie uses the yoga breath in Burning Ridge when she is under a sedative, fighting for her life.
Q: Why did you decide to bring in Cole’s ex-wife?
Margaret: She continues to be an off-the-page character. She continues to struggle with her own mental health issues. She presents blended family issues that involve visitation rights, finances, and future planning for the children. She shows up when I need to give Cole some extra conflict. She is not nice and not caring, much more centered on her own issues than providing love and care for her own children. When she abandoned Cole, she abandoned the children as well.
Q: Can you share anything about the next book in the series?
Margaret: Angie’s fear is something they must address on a professional level. In the next book she is considered to have PTSD. There is no release date or title but will come out this time next year. It is still set in Colorado. The plot involves drug trafficking, human trafficking, and two murders. Even though the next book would be book eleven, written over years, the plot timeline is only two years because I want Robo to stay young enough to work.
Dying Cry by Margaret Mizushima has action, intrigue and suspense. There is murder, a police investigation, family relationships/dynamics, and some information about veterinarians.
The plot begins when the Walker family of Cole, Sophie, Angie, and now Mattie are out snowshoeing and hear a scream. Cole takes the girls back to the resort while Mattie and her K-9 Robo go to investigate. Robo finds a trail and Mattie can see a body at the base of a cliff, but a landslide covers it before Mattie can get there. When uncovered, it becomes obvious the person is dead. An investigation of the canyon rim indicates the fall wasn’t an accident, so Mattie calls in the Timber Creek County team, Sheriff McCoy, Chief Deputy Brody and Detective Stella LoSasso to help with the investigation.
To make matters worse, the victim was one of Cole’s friends, his vet assistant Tess’s husband, Tom. Tom works at the local bank and was at a team building event with some other bank staff, while Tess came along on a mini vacation.
As the investigation takes shape it becomes apparent that quite a few people had a possible motive and could have committed the murder. The more the sheriff’s department investigates, the more questions and suspects are considered that include the bank employees, Tom’s wife Tess, and the resort employees.
In addition to having to pursue the culprit, Mattie jumps into her new role as stepmom. She is concerned about the reaction of Cole’s oldest daughter Angie who is having trouble handling all the happened to her, past and present, including her mother abandoning her, losing her best friend, her younger sister kidnapped, and everything that has happened to Mattie.
Throughout the book the reader feels engaged. This complex gripping plot has many twists and turns, lots of suspense, and a few surprises.
