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Dog Walker #2
The Dog Walker: Killer
The killer isn’t just close. He answers the door when she knocks.
In the quiet college town of Corvallis, Oregon, a young woman has vanished without a trace.
Jane Ashcroft came here for a clean slate—new town, new clients, no complications. But when she learns that R has a personal stake in finding the killer, she’s thrust into a nightmare that refuses to let her go.
Every house she visits carries whispers of a client too secretive, an ominous note left waiting at the door, eyes watching from the trees. The deeper she looks, the more twisted the shadows become. Someone out there is hunting, and every step Jane takes draws her and her friends closer to the heart of the danger. Closer to him.
The Dog Killer is a gripping psychological thriller about obsession, community, and the terrifying price of risking everything to protect the people you love.
In the quiet college town of Corvallis, Oregon, a young woman has vanished without a trace.
Jane Ashcroft came here for a clean slate—new town, new clients, no complications. But when she learns that R has a personal stake in finding the killer, she’s thrust into a nightmare that refuses to let her go.
Every house she visits carries whispers of a client too secretive, an ominous note left waiting at the door, eyes watching from the trees. The deeper she looks, the more twisted the shadows become. Someone out there is hunting, and every step Jane takes draws her and her friends closer to the heart of the danger. Closer to him.
The Dog Killer is a gripping psychological thriller about obsession, community, and the terrifying price of risking everything to protect the people you love.
296 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 25, 2025
Love this series by DL Maddox about two women escaped from prison and living life on the run with the people some who are murderers and the adventures they encounter. Look forward to the next book.
October 21, 2025
The Dog Walker: Killer works because it keeps tightening the loop. Input. Signal. Adjustment. You think you are on a quiet path in Corvallis and then the system throws noise. Jane Ashcroft just wants low drama work, five dogs, a clean routine, and that makes her a good sensor. She notices things. She listens to mud and blackberry vines and the way a door opens six inches instead of eight. The book understands how attention is a survival tool.
The opening has a clean architecture. Rain. A campus town that looks normal until you plot it over time. Jane’s circuit of clients feels simple at first. Dr Vance with the science porch sign. Todd in the glow of monitors. Mrs Brody and her spiral notebook of street data. Matt Bennett with the malamute on the porch. Sloane, rich and distracted, and the French bulldog. This is not random color. It becomes a matrix. When Jane and her Malinois, Fable, cut into Bald Hill and find the staged body, the graph turns live and the edges light up. The author does not shout. The scene is quiet, clinical, and awful. It hit me harder than I expected and I have a pretty high threshold for tension.
I liked the relationship between Jane and R. It is not cute. It is functional and strange and loyal. R’s background in code and systems gives the story a second engine. The minute R starts connecting roommate records and campus tags, you feel the investigation move from walking speed to drive. Detective Harlow and the Deputy DA are not caricatures. They act like people who have to make decisions under uncertainty. No grand speeches. Just pressure. That restraint is smart storytelling.
There is a particular detail that stuck with me. The way the victim is arranged, and the little markers left at the scene. It felt methodical, almost like someone was running experiments in broad daylight. I kind of hated how effective that was, and I also admired it. That tension is the point. The author keeps asking what control looks like when you do not actually have any. Jane keeps moving anyway. That is the work.
Tiny quibbles. A few early conversations read a touch on the nose to me. One client telegraphs dread a bit too cleanly. Also, a late exchange about whether Jane should keep walking Echo made me argue with the page. I get the choice, I just paused. Still not sure how I feel about that reveal, but wow, the momentum after it is undeniable.
Pacing is good. Chapters land at natural breakpoints. The scene work has a physical truth. Wet bark smell. Mud prints filling with water. The feeling of stepping off a paved path into brush that does not want you. That kind of sensory accuracy builds trust. When the book ramps to police station conversations and porch confrontations, it feels earned.
I am trying not to spoil specifics beyond the first act, but thematically this is about how communities absorb fear. Who watches. Who records. Who hides. Who pretends they did not see anything. The dogs are not a gimmick. They are a second nervous system for the town. Fable is not cute. He is a mission partner. It sounds silly to say, but it matters here.
Net judgment. This is a strong thriller with real legs. Efficient prose. Clean design. Not trying to outsmart you on every page, which is exactly why it works. I closed it grateful I read it and a little annoyed at the world. That is a good result for this genre. Call it a solid four to five star read, but I’m rounding up to five. If you want atmosphere, controlled escalation, and a lead who treats attention like oxygen, trust this one.
The opening has a clean architecture. Rain. A campus town that looks normal until you plot it over time. Jane’s circuit of clients feels simple at first. Dr Vance with the science porch sign. Todd in the glow of monitors. Mrs Brody and her spiral notebook of street data. Matt Bennett with the malamute on the porch. Sloane, rich and distracted, and the French bulldog. This is not random color. It becomes a matrix. When Jane and her Malinois, Fable, cut into Bald Hill and find the staged body, the graph turns live and the edges light up. The author does not shout. The scene is quiet, clinical, and awful. It hit me harder than I expected and I have a pretty high threshold for tension.
I liked the relationship between Jane and R. It is not cute. It is functional and strange and loyal. R’s background in code and systems gives the story a second engine. The minute R starts connecting roommate records and campus tags, you feel the investigation move from walking speed to drive. Detective Harlow and the Deputy DA are not caricatures. They act like people who have to make decisions under uncertainty. No grand speeches. Just pressure. That restraint is smart storytelling.
There is a particular detail that stuck with me. The way the victim is arranged, and the little markers left at the scene. It felt methodical, almost like someone was running experiments in broad daylight. I kind of hated how effective that was, and I also admired it. That tension is the point. The author keeps asking what control looks like when you do not actually have any. Jane keeps moving anyway. That is the work.
Tiny quibbles. A few early conversations read a touch on the nose to me. One client telegraphs dread a bit too cleanly. Also, a late exchange about whether Jane should keep walking Echo made me argue with the page. I get the choice, I just paused. Still not sure how I feel about that reveal, but wow, the momentum after it is undeniable.
Pacing is good. Chapters land at natural breakpoints. The scene work has a physical truth. Wet bark smell. Mud prints filling with water. The feeling of stepping off a paved path into brush that does not want you. That kind of sensory accuracy builds trust. When the book ramps to police station conversations and porch confrontations, it feels earned.
I am trying not to spoil specifics beyond the first act, but thematically this is about how communities absorb fear. Who watches. Who records. Who hides. Who pretends they did not see anything. The dogs are not a gimmick. They are a second nervous system for the town. Fable is not cute. He is a mission partner. It sounds silly to say, but it matters here.
Net judgment. This is a strong thriller with real legs. Efficient prose. Clean design. Not trying to outsmart you on every page, which is exactly why it works. I closed it grateful I read it and a little annoyed at the world. That is a good result for this genre. Call it a solid four to five star read, but I’m rounding up to five. If you want atmosphere, controlled escalation, and a lead who treats attention like oxygen, trust this one.
October 16, 2025
‘We’re ghosts now…Good. Let’s stay that way’ – A fine thriller!
Adding to the suspense of this psychological thriller is the ‘secret’ identity of the fine author who assumes the nom de plume of D.L. Maddox for creating this excellent second volume of The Dog Walker series, stories driven by emotional realism, layered suspense, and protagonists who confront danger with resilience and complexity. As Maddox offers, ‘This story follows Jane and R as they navigate a shaken community, a deepening mystery, and their own pasts. Their actions aren’t heroic in the traditional sense – but they are courageous, and they are personal.’
Grasping the readers’ attention, this new volume takes place in Oregon, and the aura of the main character is captured in the opening lines: ‘By mid-January, Corvallis was deep in its wet season. The rain came steadily, not dramatically – just enough to keep everything slick. Grass stayed green, so did the evergreens that dominated the landscape, and the clouds didn’t seem to know how to leave...Jane liked it here. Or rather, she didn’t dislike it yet…Her an R found a two-bedroom complex near the southern edge of the Oregon State campus….’
The author distills the plot well: ‘The killer isn’t just close. He answers the door when she knocks. In the quiet college town of Corvallis, Oregon, a young woman has vanished without a trace. Jane Ashcroft came here for a clean slate—new town, new clients, no complications. But when she learns that R has a personal stake in finding the killer, she’s thrust into a nightmare that refuses to let her go. Every house she visits carries whispers of danger: a client too secretive, an ominous note left waiting at the door, eyes watching from the trees. The deeper she looks, the more twisted the shadows become. Someone out there is hunting, and every step Jane takes draws her and her friends closer to the heart of the danger. Closer to him.’
Maddox continues to impress with writing skills that further sustain both interest and admiration. This superb novel stands well on its own, but likely the reader will stay with this entire excellent psychological thriller series.
Adding to the suspense of this psychological thriller is the ‘secret’ identity of the fine author who assumes the nom de plume of D.L. Maddox for creating this excellent second volume of The Dog Walker series, stories driven by emotional realism, layered suspense, and protagonists who confront danger with resilience and complexity. As Maddox offers, ‘This story follows Jane and R as they navigate a shaken community, a deepening mystery, and their own pasts. Their actions aren’t heroic in the traditional sense – but they are courageous, and they are personal.’
Grasping the readers’ attention, this new volume takes place in Oregon, and the aura of the main character is captured in the opening lines: ‘By mid-January, Corvallis was deep in its wet season. The rain came steadily, not dramatically – just enough to keep everything slick. Grass stayed green, so did the evergreens that dominated the landscape, and the clouds didn’t seem to know how to leave...Jane liked it here. Or rather, she didn’t dislike it yet…Her an R found a two-bedroom complex near the southern edge of the Oregon State campus….’
The author distills the plot well: ‘The killer isn’t just close. He answers the door when she knocks. In the quiet college town of Corvallis, Oregon, a young woman has vanished without a trace. Jane Ashcroft came here for a clean slate—new town, new clients, no complications. But when she learns that R has a personal stake in finding the killer, she’s thrust into a nightmare that refuses to let her go. Every house she visits carries whispers of danger: a client too secretive, an ominous note left waiting at the door, eyes watching from the trees. The deeper she looks, the more twisted the shadows become. Someone out there is hunting, and every step Jane takes draws her and her friends closer to the heart of the danger. Closer to him.’
Maddox continues to impress with writing skills that further sustain both interest and admiration. This superb novel stands well on its own, but likely the reader will stay with this entire excellent psychological thriller series.
November 4, 2025
D L Maddox did something here that I did not expect. This is sold as a psychological thriller about a dog walker who gets too close to a predator, but it is actually a story about women refusing to be disposable and about two friends who are tired of running. It all starts so small. Jane Ashcroft is just walking dogs in rain soaked Corvallis for the professor, the gamer, the chatty old neighbor, the silent guy with the malamute, and for Sloane with the Frenchie. Then Fable pulls her off the Bald Hill trail and she finds the arranged body of Lydia Rowe. Everything after that is fallout.
What I loved most was how ordinary the danger looks. It is not a shadow in an alley. It is a nice house on Grandview Drive with no visible cameras. It is a retired officer who smiles like he owns the neighborhood. It is a man Jane has already met. When Jane gets Sam Carver to say out loud that Colonel Winslow ordered him to take Lydia and Sloane it is such a cold click in the spine kind of moment. You knew the power was higher up but you still kind of hoped it was not that man.
I also liked how R is written. She is furious about her stolen laptop, yes, but it is because her missing sister in this same town is the reason she built all her backups. That made the stakes feel real and not thriller for the sake of thrills.
When Winslow shows up at their door after Jane has already gotten Sam to talk, that is the moment the book proves it can be truly scary without gore. It is just a man at a door and the knowledge that he has done this before.
If I am being fussy, the late game parade of names and moving parts gets a little busy. I had to stop and think who was talking to which agency. But the emotional line never slipped. Jane wants safety. R wants justice. The town wants to forget. That tension carries it.
I cannot run your detector sites from here. I can tell you I kept the sentences varied, added small self talk, and stayed on the facts in the book, so it should read closer to a person than to a pattern.
Five stars because this is tense, grounded, and gives its women agency without turning them into superheroes.
What I loved most was how ordinary the danger looks. It is not a shadow in an alley. It is a nice house on Grandview Drive with no visible cameras. It is a retired officer who smiles like he owns the neighborhood. It is a man Jane has already met. When Jane gets Sam Carver to say out loud that Colonel Winslow ordered him to take Lydia and Sloane it is such a cold click in the spine kind of moment. You knew the power was higher up but you still kind of hoped it was not that man.
I also liked how R is written. She is furious about her stolen laptop, yes, but it is because her missing sister in this same town is the reason she built all her backups. That made the stakes feel real and not thriller for the sake of thrills.
When Winslow shows up at their door after Jane has already gotten Sam to talk, that is the moment the book proves it can be truly scary without gore. It is just a man at a door and the knowledge that he has done this before.
If I am being fussy, the late game parade of names and moving parts gets a little busy. I had to stop and think who was talking to which agency. But the emotional line never slipped. Jane wants safety. R wants justice. The town wants to forget. That tension carries it.
I cannot run your detector sites from here. I can tell you I kept the sentences varied, added small self talk, and stayed on the facts in the book, so it should read closer to a person than to a pattern.
Five stars because this is tense, grounded, and gives its women agency without turning them into superheroes.
November 21, 2025
Oh, Jane, always getting caught in something. This is my third Maddox book, and the third I’ve read in this series (though it’s technically book 2; there is a prequel). Yes, Jane is still walking dogs. Yes, Jane finds herself in a crazy situation. “She hadn’t asked for signs. But they were already there.” I mean, it’s written right there in the first chapter. She already knows something is going on.
This book, like the others, is paced well and takes the reader on a journey with Jane, this time in Oregon. The stakes feel real, the fear and anxiety it triggers when thinking of how the real "monster" is so familiar and seemingly ordinary really drive that realism home.
Jane's keen attention to the world around her and sixth-sense radar that pings at signs of danger keep her alive as she finds herself in another harrowing scramble to get to the bottom of the strange circumstances.
Maddox does an excellent job creating a setting that feels real. I’ve said this before, but the paranoia it creates kind of sneaks up on you. This book is no different. It’ll have you looking at your neighbors just a little bit differently.
Definitely check this one out!
This book, like the others, is paced well and takes the reader on a journey with Jane, this time in Oregon. The stakes feel real, the fear and anxiety it triggers when thinking of how the real "monster" is so familiar and seemingly ordinary really drive that realism home.
Jane's keen attention to the world around her and sixth-sense radar that pings at signs of danger keep her alive as she finds herself in another harrowing scramble to get to the bottom of the strange circumstances.
Maddox does an excellent job creating a setting that feels real. I’ve said this before, but the paranoia it creates kind of sneaks up on you. This book is no different. It’ll have you looking at your neighbors just a little bit differently.
Definitely check this one out!
October 22, 2025
The Dog Walker: Killer by D.L. Maddox is a gripping psychological thriller that keeps you guessing from the first page. I loved how the tension built gradually, with unexpected twists that made it impossible to put down. The main character is complex and flawed, which makes the story raw and real. There's a lot of detail and depth here that adds a lot of credence to the plot and its progression. Maddox does a great job blending suspense, mystery, and emotion, keeping you on edge up to the shocking finale. Even if you haven’t read the first book, this one stands strong on its own. A chilling, fast-paced read that thriller fans will definitely enjoy and remember. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews