By: David Rosenfelt
ISBN: 9781250055347
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 7/19/2016
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars Brian and Boomer are clearly a terrific match. In fact, Andy hopes that Brian will adopt Boomer himself, once his sentence is up. But one day, Andy arrives at the prison to discover that Brian has used Boomer to make an ingenious escape, and man and dog are both in the wind. The next day, the man on whose testimony Brian was convicted is found murdered. Brian is caught and arrested for the crime, though he forcefully protests his innocence. Suddenly, Andy finds himself with a new client in Brian and a new dog in Boomer. And as he starts to dig deeper into the murder and the events leading up to it, Andy realizes he might be putting them all in far more danger than anyone had realized.
Lately, Andy has been especially involved in a county prison program where inmates help train dogs the Tara Foundation has rescued to make them more adoptable, benefiting both the dogs and the prisoners. One of the prisoners Andy has been working with is Brian Atkins, who has 18 months left on a 5-year term for fraud. Brian has been helping to train Boomer, an adorable fox terrier the Tara Foundation rescued from a neglectful owner.
Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter spends as much time as he can working on his true passion, the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs.
My Review
A special thank you to St. Martin's Press (Minotaur) and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Nice Cover. Talented David Rosenfelt returns following Who Let the Dog Out (2015) with the fun-loving Andy Carpenter Series #14 OUTFOXED —an entertaining legal thriller whodunit, mixed with mystery, suspense, dogs, french fries, football, sports, organized crime, and lots of wit! Andy Carpenter, is a defense attorney who has not been taking on any new clients, running the Tara Foundation, a dog rescue group in Haledon, New Jersey with his partner Willie. Andy is also the spreader of human and canine happiness everywhere, and loves his life (he does not miss the courtroom). However, little does he know, he will soon be returning. Andy also heads up a program called Prison Pals, rescue dogs in need of training and socialization into prisons to be trained by inmates. A win-win; the dogs get needed training and loving care, and the prisoners get the chance to interact and bond with some really great dogs. Brian Atkins, is currently one of the inmates working in the program, and also a client. His lawyer had been Nathan Cantwell, a legend in NJ legal circles for sixty years. He just died at the age of 87 and now Brian is Andy's client. He was only planning on helping him with his parole and release. Brian has served three years of a five-year term after being convicted of embezzlement and fraud, the victim being the software company that he co-founded. In a minimum security area of East Jersey state Prison, he would be up for parole in four months. He was working with an adorable fox terrier named Boomer. Brian loves Boomer, so much that Brian--Andy has learned, from Pete, captain of the police department---Brian has escaped prison with Boomer. Why would Brian escape now, when he is so close to getting out of prison? To make matters worse, he is accused of murdering two people: his wife, Denise (soon to be ex) and ex-partner, (Gerry). He was in jail originally for a white collar crime (his own company, Starlight Systems Technology Company) and Andy cannot even consider Brian as a murderer. Even after paying back the embezzled money and a fine, Brian is a wealthy man. A comfortable life awaited him on the outside. The idea he would escape made no sense. Now, Andy will have to put his lawyer hat on, once again to help Brian. Brian says he did not kill the two. He still says he is innocent of the original charges. Is he being set up? If so, why and how? In the meantime, on the home front, Andy is happily married to Laurie (former cop) and they have adopted Ricky, in the third grade. Ricky is caught discussing point spreads (sports betting), he has learned from his dad. Some fun stories here. Also we get to catch up with Tara (his best Golden Retriever and Sebastian. With a GPS tracker in Boomer’s collar they were found; however, now Andy has to dig deep, putting he and his family in danger trying to track down the long list of criminals and thugs involved in this complex conspiracy. When they find out an organized dangerous crime family and the mob are involved, things get complicated. From Wall Street, an affair, gangsters, blackmail, thugs, betting, technology to motivations for murder—was Brian being framed? As the bodies pile up, confronting dangerous killers is not something Andy had in mind for his bucket list From Andy’s fun team, and cast of colorful characters:Marcus (PI-tank) Willie (marital arts expert), Sam (Hacker), Enda (secretary), Laurie (wife, ex-cop) and his tenacity--will they solve the whodunit to clear Brian and be reunited with his pal, Boomer? As always, an entertaining tale! If you are looking for a twisty intense legal thriller, with suspense, mystery, with loads of personality and wit, an ideal series. This installment does not focus on the dog portion, as much as the whodunit crime mystery suspense; however, a well-developed absorbing suspense. Love this series - Andy Carpenter fans will devour! Looking forward the upcoming holiday book Twelve Days of Christmas (Andy Carpenter Mystery).
Review Links:
Tumblr
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas Coming: 10/18/16
Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter usually tries to avoid taking on new cases at all costs. But this time, he’s happy―eager, even―to take the case that’s just come his way. Andy’s long-time friend Martha “Pups” Boyer takes in stray puppies that the local dog rescue center can’t handle, raises them until they’re old enough to adopt, and then finds good homes for them. Not everyone admires the work Pups does as much as Andy does, however. With Christmas just around the corner, one of Pups’s neighbors has just reported Pups to the city for having more than the legal number of pets in her home under the local zoning laws. Read More
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. Read More
