D.D. Ayres’ unique ‘K-9 Rescue’ novels have loyal following

You can’t judge a D.D. Ayres book by its cover — but you can spot one from a block away.

The Fort Worth-based author writes a series of romantic suspense novels that feature a revolving-door cast of heroes working in law-enforcement or military K-9 units.

The covers of her “K-9 Rescue” paperbacks feature images of hunky men with bulging biceps and six-pack abs — guns in their hands and dogs at their side.

It’s a very specific literary sub-genre — and Ayres has pretty much cornered the market.

When she meets readers at book signings, like the one she’ll do at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Hulen Center Barnes & Noble in Fort Worth, readers seem to fall into two distinct categories.

“There are people who want to talk about the dogs,” says Ayres, whose latest is titled Primal Force. “These dogs aren’t like ordinary pets who are smart enough to fetch your slippers. These are top-of-the-line, special achievers. They’re Mensa-Olympics-Special Ops cream-of-the-crop dogs.

“Then there are the other kind of readers, those who get very invested in the love story elements of the books. There has been an explosion of interest in the romance industry for this new breed of hero, a post-9-11 kind of hero: police officer, firefighter, soldier, SEAL and so on.”

It’s as if Fabio, the cover model whose presence sold millions of romance novels in the 1980s and ’90s, donned a uniform and got a dog.

Speaking of which, it never fails that a few readers will ask about the Adonis on the book covers.

Yes, ladies, he’s real.

“They took photographs of a real person and I know he lives in New York City,” Ayres says. “So, yes, there are men walking around who really look like that. But, sorry, I don’t know him personally.”

Primal Force (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99) is the third in a series that debuted in 2014.

Each book introduces a new handler and his dog, shows what the canine team can do, delves into a case that can’t be solved without that dog and pairs the human half of the team with the right woman for some steamy, sweaty lovemaking. By the end, we get long-term romance and one happy pack.

The first book, Irresistible Force, features a patrol officer and his police dog. The second, Force of Attraction, involves an undercover DEA agent and his drug-sniffing partner.

The new book, released earlier this month, features a disabled Afghanistan veteran suffering from PTSD. Lauray “Law” Battise is a lone wolf who lost his four-legged partner in combat. He’s reluctant now to accept an eager-to-please service dog into his life.

There’s also an attractive dog trainer Law is desperately trying to resist. Primal Force, therefore, is a double love story. “He has to fall for both the girl and the dog,” Ayres says.

With each book, Ayres does extensive research into what these dogs can do in a different specialty area.

She also gets insight from officer Brad Thompson of the Fort Worth Police Department, who worked for 16 years in the Special Operations/K-9 Unit, which is responsible for training and deployment of patrol and narcotic detection dogs.

As a result, Ayres writes her four-legged characters in a realistic way, as opposed to the cuter approach that many cozy mystery novelists take, with animal characters that somehow solve crimes.

“I didn’t want canine characters that were essentially just people in fur suits,” Ayres explains. “Those kinds of books can be a lot of fun, but that’s not the kind of series I wanted to write.”

Ayres — who has written romance novels and women’s fiction under the names Laura Parker and Laura Castoro —was born in Fort Worth but grew up in Arkansas.

She and her husband moved here three years ago. “So even though this has always technically been my home,” Ayres says, “it took a long time to get an actual Fort Worth address.”

Given the books she writes, some readers might be surprised to learn that Ayres doesn’t have a dog. That’s because her beloved Zoey, a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, died in January — at age 14 — and she’s still grieving.

“It’s been a hard thing,” she says. “Some people can go get a new dog the next day, but I’m not one of those people.”

Ayres figures she’ll know it’s time when she meets the right dog. “Or when the right dog chooses me.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 3:11 PM with the headline "D.D. Ayres’ unique ‘K-9 Rescue’ novels have loyal following."