What is Margaret Mizushima reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Margaret Mizushima, author of Burning Ridge: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery.

Her entry begins:

I’m typically reading both fiction and nonfiction, and the book I pick up depends on which room I’m in when I decide to sit and rest. In nonfiction, I’ve lately focused on books about writing and books about childhood trauma (to help with the character arc of my protagonist Deputy Mattie Cobb).

Here are the books you would find scattered around my home today:

South California Purples, by Baron R. Birtcher. I ordered this novel months ago and am finally able to grab a few moments to savor it. Set in 1973, this book captures the turmoil and transition of its era while it tells the story of an Oregon cattle rancher who is involuntarily conscripted to help law enforcement with the government auction of a herd of wild mustangs, despite the protest and interference of local citizens. Birtcher’s depiction of the times, landscape descriptions, and dialogue are a pleasure to read, and the book is a...[read on]

About Burning Ridge, from the publisher:

Featuring Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo, Burning Ridge by critically acclaimed author Margaret Mizushima is just the treat for fans of Alex Kava.

Colorado’s Redstone Ridge is a place of extraordinary beauty, but this rugged mountain wilderness harbors a horrifying secret. When a charred body is discovered in a shallow grave on the ridge, officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called in to spearhead the investigation. But this is no ordinary crime—and it soon becomes clear that Mattie has a close personal connection to the dead man.

Joined by local veterinarian Cole Walker, the pair scours the mountaintop for evidence and makes another gruesome discovery: the skeletonized remains of two adults and a child. And then, the unthinkable happens. Could Mattie become the next victim in the murderer’s deadly game?

A deranged killer torments Mattie with a litany of dark secrets that call into question her very identity. As a towering blaze races across the ridge, Cole and Robo search desperately for her—but time is running out in Margaret Mizushima’s fourth spine-tingling Timber Creek K-9 mystery, Burning Ridge.

Visit Margaret Mizushima's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah, Bertie, Lily and Tess.

My Book, The Movie: Burning Ridge.

Writers Read: Margaret Mizushima.

--Marshal Zeringue