This was another interesting case for reluctant defense lawyer Andy Carpenter. He'd be quite content to remain retired, work in dog rescue, and hang out with his wife and son. But when his wife Laurie asks him to defend her ex-fiance, Andy takes the case.

Kramer doesn't dispute that he killed Zimmer. But he claims it was self-defense since Zimmer came at him with a knife. However, video evidence of the crime which happened at a New Jersey rest area only shows Kramer entering and leaving the truck -- and no knife is found at the crime scene.

Andy first gets involved because Zimmer was transporting rescue dogs from the South to more pet-friendly New England. He spends a lot of time trying to discover where Zimmer had intended to take the dogs and has little success.

As Andy and his crack team of investigators, including a bunch of Jewish Senior Citizens, look into things, they find that there is a large conspiracy which includes conspirators named for NFL Quarterbacks with plans to manipulate the stock market and detonate weapons of mass destruction. Now all Andy has to do is convince a jury that Kramer was a victim of this conspiracy - without any particular evidence.

Snarky comments, cute dogs, and intriguing characters make this another fine entry into the Andy Carpenter series. Grover Gardner does a great job with the voices and emotions of this fast-paced story. ( )

lawyers, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, family-dynamics, FBI, fraud, friendship, framed, conspiracy, senior-citizens, situational-humor, dogs, greed, verbal-humor, snark-fest, private-investigators, ex-cop, fast-pace, computer-nerd*****

Another intriguing story with a fairly high body count and some help from the Feds. Andy Carpenter is a wise-mouthed lawyer who can afford to take semi retirement by only representing innocent clients while supporting an animal shelter. Add in that his wife is no longer law enforcement but works as his private investigator and more and you have the baseline for these convoluted mysteries. There are many other people who help Andy find out what the truth really is and make it courtroom admissible. This time it involves a semi full of rescue dogs, an old boyfriend of Carpenter's wife, and a change from the simple not guilty to a self defense plea. No spoilers, and the snarkfest keeps it from being too realistic. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and the characters certainly are, but there's no need for spoilers or an attempt at a summary. I found it to be a real brain grabber and it is one in a series of interesting and well written mysteries. At no time does the reader feel lost or as if missing background info.
Grover Gardner narrates this complicated snarkfest perfectly! ( )

I love Andy Carpenter and book 17 is another great read. What differentiate this mild legal thriller from others is really the characters, especially Andy himself -funny, sharp, emotionally unstable (haha in this book, jealousy). It's a good change to see a main character with umpteen flaws and still love the guy.
There's a bit of courtroom sequence towards the end that wraps up the story nicely. However, I'm confused and not sure how Carpenter learned what was at Chesterfield. ( )

I'm always delighted when a new David Rosenfelt shows up. He always writes the same book, which is fine. Some are better than others. This isn't one of his better ones, but it's still a nice afternoon. ( )

When the real world has become more or less unbearable, what a delight it is to be able to relax inside the wacky world of Andy Carpenter. This is book #17 of this stand-up comedy/mystery/dog-related legal procedural crime series. I have not read all of them, but it’s not a problem to follow the plots no matter which book you pick up.

Andy is a lawyer who hates to work and has enough inherited wealth to avoid it, but somehow cases keep falling into his lap. In this instance, his wife Laurie asks Andy to defend her ex-boyfriend, Dave Kramer, who has been accused of murder. Dave admits he shot the victim, but claims it was in self-defense. The problem is, the weapon allegedly used by the attacker is missing from the scene of the crime.

Laurie insists Dave is not a killer, and that he is telling the truth. Andy is aided in his investigation not only by Laurie, an ex-cop, but by a group of eager and talented computer hackers. These aren’t your average computer geeks: as Andy explains, the youngest among them is probably eighty. But they are smart, persistent, and besides, they bake treats.

Before long, Andy, with his witty repartee disguising a razor-like legal mind, figures out what’s really going on, which is of course nothing like what it initially appeared to be. He uncovers a pattern of financial misdeeds that involved Dave only because Dave, a private investigator, was getting close to uncovering them by accident. But the case is coming to trial, and Andy isn’t close to proving what he suspects.

One of my favorite lines: Andy is looking into Dave’s former clients for clues about who might want to set him up. He goes into the office of a midsize office products manufacturer to speak with the manager.

“‘So you manufacture office furniture?’ I ask. ‘Because I don’t see any manufacturing going on here.’

She replies:

‘This is just where the back-office stuff is done. If you want to see our manufacturing plant, you go out the front gate, make a left, and go seven thousand miles.’”

Evaluation: This book (which can be read as a standalone) is clever and humorous, and had me laughing out loud. And yes, dogs play a role, but only in terms of being walked and petted. It’s just the thing if you’re looking for a lighter crime novel. ( )