By: David Rosenfelt ISBN: 9781250055330
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 7/21/2015
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars
A lawyer by day-and then only when he’s forced to take on new cases-Andy Carpenter’s true passion is the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs with his friend Willie Miller. So it’s frightening when Willie calls him to say the alarm has gone off at the foundation building, and there’s clearly been a break-in. It turns out that a recently rescued dog, nicknamed Cheyenne since her arrival at the foundation, has been stolen. Andy and Willie track the missing dog to a house in downtown Paterson, New Jersey and sure enough, they find the dog…standing right next to a dead body. The man had been gruesomely murdered mere minutes before Andy and Willie arrived. Could it be a coincidence? Or could the dog theft somehow be connected to the killing?
Andy takes Cheyenne safely back to the foundation building, and that should be the end of his involvement, but Andy’s curiosity-and his desire to keep the dog from further harm-won’t let him stop there. The cops have just arrested a man named Tommy Infante for the murder, but as Andy looks into the circumstances surrounding the break-in and the dog theft, he starts to wonder if Infante might actually be innocent. And when Andy takes Infante on as a client and starts searching in earnest for evidence that will exonerate him, what Andy starts to discover terrifies him. The murder might be just one small cog in a plot with far-reaching implications, and unless Andy can uncover the truth in time, thousands of lives could be in imminent danger.
Once again David Rosenfelt has written a fast-paced and clever mystery with his characteristic blend of humor, larger-than-life characters, and propulsive plotting.
About the Author
I am a novelist with 27 dogs. I have gotten to this dubious position with absolutely no planning, and at no stage in my life could I have predicted it. But here I am.
My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, “Ozzie and Harriet’s” clan seemed bizarre.
I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every “Rambo”, “The Natural” and “Rocky”, there are countless disasters. I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities.
A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It’s safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal.
About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It’s total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group. Website
My Review
A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
WHO LET THE DOG OUT by David Rosenfelt (Andy Carpenter #13), is a mix of legal thriller, murder mystery, a dog lovers world, humor, and baseball; for a fun-filled suspense engaging read. Attorney Andy Carpenter is an unabashed animal lover, and he has a reputation for saving both dogs and humans from Death Row. With the help of his beloved golden retriever Tara, Andy solves cases and wins courtroom battles in this acclaimed series of legal thrillers. The Tara Foundation, is a dog rescue organization, in New Jersey and attorney Andy Carpenter operates with his friend Willie (a former client). They are all about saving dogs, similar to Andy saving humans from death row in his legal practice. As the book opens a break-in occurs at the Tara Foundation. A recue dog, Cheyenne, a German shepherd mix has been stolen. The dog fortunately has a GPS chip, leading them to take off and investigate the dog whereabouts. What they find is shocking….the dog is standing to a dead man—brutally murdered. What gives? Andy, with his investigative attorney mind, seems to think there is more to the story, even though the cops arrested someone for the murder (Tommy Infante). However, have the cops arrested the correct man, or could he be innocent? Andy decides to take on Tommy as a client, and uncovers a bigger mystery which leads them to danger. While they are trying to track down Cheyenne’s former owner—leading them to a fugitive suspected of murdering his business partner, an international diamond smuggling, and domestic terrorism, plus more. Who was the real owner of the dog and how is this connected to the murder? With an array of suspects, Andy is full of wit and humor with wise cracks, lovable dogs, and some good crime thrilling suspense mystery. With some personal fun with Andy --his wife Laurie, baseball, and their adopted eight-year old son, Ricky. This was my first book by Rosenfelt and was attracted to the series, as a lover of legal thrillers and golden retrievers(Wow, do I miss my special and unique golden –Golden Duke for fifteen wonderful years—great memories). This one is for you! Goldens are special dogs and lovers of Donna Ball’s Raine Stockton Dog Mysteries (Golden-Cisco) will find the series intriguing. Rosenfelt’s passion shines through each page. A strong delivery and some great legal and investigative work. Look forward to reading the next in the series, and catching up with the previous Andy Carpenter books. "BLACKOUT", coming 1/5/2016.
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