About the Book: The vivid, immersive nature writing of William Kent Krueger and Peter Heller meets the taut suspense of Louise Penny against the lush, sprawling landscape of rural Wisconsin in the first of a new mystery trilogy by internationally renowned animal behavior expert Patricia McConnell, bestselling author of The Other End of the Leash and The Education of Will.

Maddie is living her best second life on a 40-acre sheep farm in the Wisconsin countryside. In addition to her passion for training sheepdogs—including her spirited border collie Jack—she sees all manner of dogs with behavioral problems ranging from biting to thunder phobia as part of her local practice. No stranger to trauma herself, Maddie has worked hard to recover from the ordeal of her previous marriage.

But things take a turn when Maddie’s friend and mentor, George, is inexplicably killed by a rifle shot fired from the woods during a sheepdog trial. Maddie is devastated and also baffled—it’s not hunting season, and who could mistake a man, standing alone in a field, for a deer?

She’s still reeling from George’s shooting when a shelter calls her for help with a German shepherd found half dead beside the highway who’s too aggressive to feed and care for. The dog flourishes at the farm, but when Maddie returns one day to find her house invaded, it’s clear that she has stumbled into a situation far more complex and sinister than she realized. And her romantic involvement with an enigmatic young shelter worker soon leads to even more trouble. As Maddie continues to search for answers to George’s death, it quickly becomes apparent that her own life is once again in danger . . .

About the Author: Patricia McConnell, PhD, CAAB is an internationally renowned animal behaviorist and author whose acclaimed books, including The Other End of the Leash, For the Love of a Dog, and The Education of Will, have sold more than 1.2 million copies. A former adjunct professor in Zoology at the University of WisconsinMadison, her nationally syndicated radio show, Calling All Pets, played in more than 110 cities for 14 years and her television show, Petline, aired on Animal Planet for two and a half years. She lives with her Border Collies and a flock of sheep on a farm in Southern Wisconsin and can be found online at PatriciaMcConnell.com.

About Maggie Ginsberg: Maggie Ginsberg is the author of Still True, published by the University of Wisconsin Press and winner of the Wisconsin Library Association's 2023 WLA Literary Award for Fiction. It was the 2026 inaugural pick for the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium's statewide Wisconsin Reads digital book club, and the honorable mention selection for the 2022 Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, among other honors. She is the former managing editor of Madison Magazine, and now works full-time as a writer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Livestream: Patricia McConnell in Conversation with Maggie Ginsberg