Wow, Ms. Marshman hits you right on page one with the action, twists, and turns and doesn't stop until the very last page. If you love a good WITSEC book, then you will love Scent Detection.
Marie is a guarded woman. She'd been in Jasper, Idaho, for five years but kept to herself other than her friends at the DCA, her veterinary practice, and her surrogate grandmother, Dotty. They were all colorful characters who love Marie and want what's best for her. They suspect there's a good reason why she is the way she is, but they don't push her to reveal her secrets, which is good because she can't. She's living a life of solitude out of necessity for doing the right thing when she unknowingly got involved with a very evil man.
Jack. That's it, just Jack. He doesn't know his last name because his truck crashed, and he went flying, leaving him with retrograde amnesia. What does he remember? The woman who saved him was familiar, but he didn't know why. His gut told him he'd better stay in Jasper to find out why. He takes a job at the DCA, which kept him near Marie, and he wasn't complaining.
Astrid. Who doesn't love a dog with an attitude and intense dedication to its owner? I loved that Astrid went nearly everywhere with Marie and did everything she could to keep Marie safe. It was nice to read a K-9 book where the dog wasn't just 'in' the book but an important secondary character in their own right. Ms. Marshman did an excellent job with a character who couldn't speak but certainly made her presence known.
The action in Scent Detection was nonstop, whether they were saving puppies, Dotty, or their own lives. This is the first book I've read in this series, and it was easy to read as a stand-alone, so if you haven't read the rest of the K-9s on patrol, you won't be lost. The love story was woven through the pages in a way that felt natural and not forced. Even when they were both faced with situations beyond their control, they looked to each other for support. Congratulations, Ms. Marshman, on a well-written, fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat novel that delivers everything you expect from a Harlequin Intrigue!