โ Scribed by David Rosenfelt
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Northern New Jersey has a new local hero on its cultural crime turf.He's Andy Carpenter, the Paterson defense attorney who can sling a quip as fast as he can outmaneuver a snarling prosecutor. Acclaimed author David Rosenfelt's first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award, now in this new novel, the intrepid lawyer is thrust into the spotlight where he risks becoming a media victim...of the most fatal kind. His streak of murder case acquittals made him a regular on cable talk shows. His recent $22 million inheritance bought him a dog rescue operation named the Tara Foundation after his own beloved golden retriever. Yet after turning down cases left and right, Andy Carpenter thinks he's facing a midlife crisis. When a friend, a newspaper owner, calls in a favor and asks him to protect his star reporter, Andy is less than thrilled. His new client is Daniel Cummings, a journalist who is being used as a mouthpiece by a brutal serial killer. Things only get worse when Daniel is discovered near the body of the murderer's latest victim. And after Andy himself starts collecting anonymous death threats, he hears the news every defense lawyer dreads...and moves to within a dangerous keystroke of becoming tomorrow's obituary.
In Rosenfelt's breezy crime confection, his third to feature Andy Carpenter (after 2003's First Degree), a serial killer who cuts off his victims' hands has been terrorizing the dog-loving lawyer's northern New Jersey turf. When the cops charge one of the murders to newspaperman Daniel Cummings, who's been receiving messages from the killer taunting the police, Andy and his legal team step up to the defense. The author writes like a guy relentlessly channel surfing, always on the move, never risking boredom. Of police fiber technician Donald Prescott, one of the many characters briefly met, he notes: "if you possess both a desire to be a cop and a self-preservation instinct, it's a good job to have. There is even less chance that Prescott will get shot at than the guy who draws the chalk outlines around bodies." When a Passaic police detective asks Andy what he was doing while his ex-cop girlfriend was beating up a bad guy ("Holding her purse?"), Andy thinks, "He knows nothing; the fact is that Laurie wasn't even carrying a purse that night. It was more of a handbag." The witty asides never stop. The novel may not have a single convincing dramatic moment, but the tricks and turns before the resolution provide a fun rollercoaster ride.
Copyright ยฉ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Wisecracking defense attorney Andy Carpenter takes on his third unwinnable case in this thoroughly winning series. Antsy about reporter Daniel Cummings' exclusive contact with a serial killer who is strangling Jersey girls and removing their hands, the local newspaper editor retains Andy in case any legal issues should arise. Say, murder? Cummings is caught red-handed with the severed appendages of the latest victim, a local politician, and the prosecutor has plenty of hard evidence to suggest they've got their man. Miscellaneous complications with cold- and hot-blooded killers ensue, as the plot careens around various turns, but the real charm of this series lies in the wit of its affable narrator, who is not about to let an ongoing capital trial keep him from walking his beloved golden retriever, betting the point spread, or losing on the stock market. Add to this a likable supporting cast and a low-key love interest, and you have the legal-thriller genre's waggish rejoinder to Anthony Bruno and Janet Evanovich. A sure bet. David Wright
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Northern New Jersey has a new local hero on its cultural crime turf.He's Andy Carpenter, the Paterson defense attorney who can sling a quip as fast as he can outmaneuver a snarling prosecutor. Acclaimed author David Rosenfelt's first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award, now in this new novel, th
SUMMARY: I watch sixteen football games over nine hours. It's an extraordinary accomplishment...With the remote secure in the palm of my hand, or more often resting on my chest, I am all powerful. I haven't missed an important play since the Carter administration. His streak of murder case acquitt
### From Publishers Weekly In Rosenfelt's breezy crime confection, his third to feature Andy Carpenter (after 2003's *First Degree*), a serial killer who cuts off his victims' hands has been terrorizing the dog-loving lawyer's northern New Jersey turf. When the cops charge one of the murders to new
SUMMARY: I watch sixteen football games over nine hours. It's an extraordinary accomplishment...With the remote secure in the palm of my hand, or more often resting on my chest, I am all powerful. I haven't missed an important play since the Carter administration. His streak of murder case acquitt
SUMMARY: I watch sixteen football games over nine hours. It's an extraordinary accomplishment...With the remote secure in the palm of my hand, or more often resting on my chest, I am all powerful. I haven't missed an important play since the Carter administration. His streak of murder case acquitt