In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped a photo from the newspaper: an exhausted canine handler, face buried in the fur of his search-and-rescue dog. A dog lover and pilot with search experience herself, Susannah was so moved by the image that she decided to volunteer with a local canine team and soon discovered firsthand the long hours, nonexistent pay, and often heart-wrenching results they face. 

Still she felt the call, and once she qualified to train a dog of her own, she adopted Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever puppy who exhibited unique aptitudes as a working dog but who was less interested in the role of compliant house pet. Puzzle's willfulness and high drive, both assets in the field, challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

Scent of the Missing is the story of Susannah and Puzzle's adventures together and of the close relationship they forge as they search for the lost--a teen gone missing, an Alzheimer's patient wandering in the cold, signs of the crew amid the debris of the space shuttle Columbia disaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of whole-body dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner in a noble enterprise that unfolds across the forests, plains, and cityscapes of the Southwest. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone and to unravel the mystery of the human/canine bond.

To listen to an audio excerpt, click HERE.

Susannah Charleson was first published under her given name in 1981. A content provider before the term became an idiom, she has written magazine and newsletter articles, multimedia productions, PSAs, news stories, commercials, features and movie reviews for commercial radio, Web content for publisher Thomson/Wadsworth, radio theatre and parody for public radio, catalogue copy for a vintage jewelry store, and serial fiction on AOL. She is a flight instructor and canine search-and-rescue team member in the United States. Her search partner Puzzle is a Golden Retriever certified for the rescue/recovery of missing persons in urban, wilderness, disaster and scent discrimination searches. Susannah and Puzzle share their home with a rabble of Pomeranians, cats and a fish named Sound Bite. This is her first book.