Breaking Creed

In Breaking Creed (#613) author Alex Kava reunites FBI forensic specialist Maggie O'Dell with Ryder Creed and his multi-purpose service dogs in pursuit of a drug cartel enforcer fond of using creepy-crawlies in his work.  As if drug trafficking and child trafficking aren't loathsome enough on their own!

Ryder becomes a target when he's called in by the Coast Guard to investigate a fishing boat they've been monitoring for suspected drug cargoes.  What Grace, his fifteen pound terrier, finds aboard surprises everyone.  Hidden under a ton of fish is a concealed compartment holding five kidnapped children.  The cartel is apparently branching out.  It doesn't help that on a routine patrol of Pensacola Airport with his drug-sniffing dog one of the cartel's teen-aged mules uses Ryder as her escape route.  Now the cartel has twice the reason to target Ryder and Grace.

Maggie O'Dell becomes involved when her boss at the FBI sends her on a wild goose chase to inspect a body pulled from the Potomac.  When she and the medical examiner come across some unusual findings on the body on the riverbank, she immediately suspects the death is drug-related.  Her boss publicly discounts the idea, but Maggie is persistent in following up her leads  until both she and Ryder find themselves on the same case in Alabama.  As they come closer to identifying the elusive Iceman both Maggie and Ryder are clearly on his hit list.  With the cartel's money and manpower, will either be able to survive long enough to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice?

A great page-turning crime series.  Start at the beginning if you can, but you can easily pick up this series and go backwards and forwards without missing too much.