Who Let the Dog Out?

May 11, 2015
At the start of Rosenfelt’s subpar 13th mystery featuring lawyer Andy Carpenter (after 2014’s Hounded), thief Gerry Downey breaks into the Tara Foundation, Andy’s dog rescue operation in Paterson, N.J., and steals Cheyenne, a German shepherd mix. Thanks to a GPS tracker in the dog’s collar, Andy and his partner, Willie Morris, are able to locate Cheyenne in a modest house in downtown Paterson, where they also discover Downey’s nearly decapitated body. Their efforts to track down Cheyenne’s former owner lead to a fugitive suspected of murdering his business partner and to a larger case involving a ruthless assassin and arms dealer, international diamond smuggling, and domestic terrorism. On the home front, Andy wisecracks with Laurie, his bride of five months, and takes an overly invested interest in the baseball ability of their recently adopted eight-year-old son, Ricky. Series fans will hope for a deeper look into Andy’s life with his new family in the next installment. Author tour. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

May 15, 2015
After taking a dollar to represent a client for an hour, Paterson attorney Andy Carpenter ends up signing on for the tour: multiple murder, a fortune in suspect diamonds, and international terrorism. The theft of a Shepherd mix named Cheyenne from the rescue shelter Andy runs with his former client Willie Miller might not seem like a big deal, and thanks to Willie's know-how, they track down the missing dog before midnight. But the case gets red-hot when Cheyenne turns up standing guard over the body of her dognapper, Gerry Downey, who's been nearly decapitated. The police, with their customary lack of imagination, arrest Tommy Infante, an associate of Downey's who'd publicly threatened to cut his throat if Downey didn't turn over his share of the proceeds from a recent jewelry robbery. Convinced that Tommy must know something about the dog, Andy bluffs his way into jail, where he earns a dollar and satisfies himself that Tommy doesn't know a thing. But when he's at the point of turning over the case to Deb Kohl, Andy suddenly learns that Cheyenne belonged to Eric Brantley, a brilliant chemist sought by the police for the murder of his business partner, Michael Caruso. Now certain that the dognapping is connected to something bigger, Andy hangs on to the case, and soon enough he's hanging on for dear life as he's dragged through a series of expertly choreographed courtroom scenes in which prosecutor Dylan Campbell keeps insisting that this open-and-shut case has nothing to do with the wild schemes Andy and his investigators have uncovered. As in Andy's other recent adventures (Unleashed, 2013, etc.), the mystery is neatly turned, the detection authentic, the legal back and forth expertly judged, the wisecracks amusing, and the dog-love stuff nicely modulated. Only the international intrigue fails to catch fire-and a good thing, as Andy would say.

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June 1, 2015
One more spin for series star Andy Carpenter, who distinguished himself early on by not being bitter, boozy, cuckolded, and kicked off the force for excessive enthusiasm. He's a rich, lazy lawyer who loves not having to work. But trouble finds him. Here it's a dog stolen from a dog-rescue foundation he heads, and his quest to recover the mutt leads him into murder, diamond smuggling, even global terrorism. In the past, his zest for his mission has been infectious, but not this time: too many characters, flat writing, and a revelation at the end that should be stunning but comes across as an excuse to go home. Some readers may be put off by the strain, stronger in each book, of lowbrow pandering. Andy's first stop is the dum-dum sports bar, and after that he doesn't miss a chance to tell us how proud he is of knowing so little. This series, combining, as it does, love of dogs with mysteries that are more realistic than cozy, has its devoted fans. They'll want to read this one, but after finishing it, they'll be hoping for better next time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)