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The Hard Freeze
(2026)(The second book in the Riley Marsh K-9 Search & Rescue Mystery series)
A novel by Mara Perry
A chinook thaw.
A hard freeze.
And a death the whole town blames on the weather.
When a warm February wind hits the Montana mountains, search-and-rescue handler Riley Marsh and her chocolate Lab, Huck, pull a half-frozen rider out of a creek alive. Two nights later the county turns to glass, and Riley's radio goes off for the same trail.
This time it's Emmett Pruett, a local man, found dead on the slope above his wrecked snowmobile.
The county calls it an accident. Bad ice, bad luck, a rider off a groomed trail on the worst night of the winter.
Riley Marsh disagrees.
A man who freezes to death melts himself a bed in the snow. Emmett is lying on top of it. And nobody in Copper Falls pays cash for a twenty-thousand-dollar snowmobile, but Emmett did.
Six months home, in a town still sore about the last thing she found, Riley won't let it go, and Sheriff Simon Brennan quietly keeps the file open. But a hunch won't change a ruling. She needs proof, so she takes the dog back up the mountain.
Up there, Huck finds enough to keep her asking. And in a place this small, asking questions about one neighbor means asking questions about everyone. The town isn't afraid she's wrong. It's afraid she's right.
Meanwhile, the file on her brother's search has been sitting unopened on her kitchen table since November. This winter, she runs out of reasons not to open it.
THE HARD FREEZE is the second book in the Riley Marsh K-9 Search & Rescue Mysteries, set in the Montana high country. For fans of Sophie Lyon's K-9 Search & Rescue Mysteries, Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek novels, and Dana Stabenow.
What readers will find:
A hard freeze.
And a death the whole town blames on the weather.
When a warm February wind hits the Montana mountains, search-and-rescue handler Riley Marsh and her chocolate Lab, Huck, pull a half-frozen rider out of a creek alive. Two nights later the county turns to glass, and Riley's radio goes off for the same trail.
This time it's Emmett Pruett, a local man, found dead on the slope above his wrecked snowmobile.
The county calls it an accident. Bad ice, bad luck, a rider off a groomed trail on the worst night of the winter.
Riley Marsh disagrees.
A man who freezes to death melts himself a bed in the snow. Emmett is lying on top of it. And nobody in Copper Falls pays cash for a twenty-thousand-dollar snowmobile, but Emmett did.
Six months home, in a town still sore about the last thing she found, Riley won't let it go, and Sheriff Simon Brennan quietly keeps the file open. But a hunch won't change a ruling. She needs proof, so she takes the dog back up the mountain.
Up there, Huck finds enough to keep her asking. And in a place this small, asking questions about one neighbor means asking questions about everyone. The town isn't afraid she's wrong. It's afraid she's right.
Meanwhile, the file on her brother's search has been sitting unopened on her kitchen table since November. This winter, she runs out of reasons not to open it.
THE HARD FREEZE is the second book in the Riley Marsh K-9 Search & Rescue Mysteries, set in the Montana high country. For fans of Sophie Lyon's K-9 Search & Rescue Mysteries, Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek novels, and Dana Stabenow.
What readers will find:
- A complete standalone mystery. Start here or at Book 1; either works.
Real winter search and rescue: melt-freeze, hard ice, and a dog working cold scent
A rival who's decided to be useful, and a town that shows up when the pager goes, even for the people it's angry at
The slow-burn sheriff and a standing Tuesday coffee at the Copper Kettle
No graphic on-page violence. The crime is off-page; the aftermath is the story.
The dog always comes home.
If you love a working dog, hard weather, and a small town that would rather not know, one-click THE HARD FREEZE now and follow the dog.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Mara Perry's The Hard Freeze