Customer Reviews

Dead Center

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In David Rosenfelt's "Dead Center," Andy Carpenter and his beloved dog, Tara, leave their comfort zone in Paterson, New Jersey to spend time in Findlay, Wisconsin. Andy has been licking his wounds after the love of his life, Laurie Collins, dumped him to return to her hometown of Findlay, where she has become Acting Chief of Police. For the last few months, Andy has been hanging out with Tara, appearing on cable television as a legal expert, and spending time at a dog rescue operation that he runs with his partner, Willie. He also loves to socialize with his immature friends at a sports bar, sit on his couch and watch any game that happens to be on, and place the occasional bet with his bookie. In short, he has a rather pathetic and predictable life.

Laurie changes all that when she asks Andy to come to Wisconsin to defend Jeremy Davidson, a young man accused of brutally slaying two coeds. Although Laurie is technically on the side of the prosecution, she is convinced that Jeremy is innocent. After much soul-searching, Andy agrees to take the case.

David Rosenfelt has a reputation for seamlessly combining hilarious and sarcastic humor with engrossing mysteries. Andy is an appealing protagonist and narrator, a self-deprecating nebbish, and a compassionate and quick-witted criminal defense attorney. He is New Jersey's answer to William Bernhardt's Tulsa-based Ben Kincaid. Since Andy and Laurie make such a perfect couple, the reader roots for them to rekindle their romance.

The plot revolves around a town that is inhabited by a religious cult whose leader discourages dissent. Is it possible that the members of this cult would resort to violence to protect their secrets? After Andy's arrival in Wisconsin, there are additional unexplained deaths and a suicide that may have been staged. Andy uses his considerable legal expertise to try to exonerate Jeremy, and he also plays amateur sleuth. Along with his inarticulate but effective bodyguard, the formidable Marcus Clark, our hero lays his life on the line to solve the puzzle before any more corpses pile up. "Dead Center" is a mildly entertaining book with the usual red herrings and surprises, but it has a forced, "been there, done that" feel; it lacks the flavor, bite, and originality that made Rosenfelt's earlier novels such a delight.

There are wonderful characters who get under your skin and you can't read too many books about them. Such are the charcters, Patrick Gennaro from the series written by Dennis Lehane, character Myron Bolitar from the Harlan Coben series and finally Nelson DeMille's character, John Corey. And I was delighted several years ago when I chanced upon a new book, Open and Shut, by the then new to me author, David Rosenfelt. From this book and author I was able to add a new and fun character, Andy Carpenter, whom I equally enjoy and love to read about. And after reading Rosenfelt's four earlier books which featured this character, I recently read Dead Center, another good addition to this series.

Andy, an irascible lawyer from NJ travels to Michigan to solve the murder of two young women. It doesn't hurt that Andy's old girlfriend is the acting chief of police and he is able to reestablish their former relationship which he so much wants and has missed. But while Andy is snoopping around, Andy finds himself hitting a brick wall asking questions among the members of a bizarre religious community and suddenly he is dead center for trouble.

While not my favorite book in the series, thsi one was still a good and worthwhile read. I continue to enjoy the main characters and supporting cast, many of whom appeared in earlier titles. As I look forward to new books by authors Lehane, Coben and DeMille, I eagerly await David Rosenfelt's next book to see what Andy and his friens are up to.

I have read all of Rosenfelt's books about Andy Carpenter. Don't ask me why. Just accept it. Perhaps it is the basic story that I like and some of the humor that is involved. However, this is not a "great courtroom" series. Not even close.

This is about a guy named Andy Carpenter who was a fairly new lawyer when his parents died and he inherited about 25 million dollars. He has had some success in the courtroom and his father was a prosecutor before him, but Perry Mason this guy isn't. However, his source of income is guaranteed for life, so he doesn't have to worry if people can pay or not for his services.

Then he has a love life problem. He is in love with Laurie. She used to be his private investigator and his main squeeze. Then she got a yen to return to her home town in Wisconsin. To be a cop. So she left Andy and his millions and went back to Cheese Country.

In this book she comes asking for his help. A young man has been charged with a double murder which she feels he didn't commit. He answers the siren call and leaves New Jersey for the wilds of Wisconsin and finds himself immersed in a situation where there is a community of people called "Centurions." They live in Center City. Kind of a cult. The murdered girls are from there. The accused lives in Findlay. So does Laurie. She is now the Acting Chief of Police.

It gets complicated and bodies keep piling up. It turns out that one of the centerpieces of the solution to the mystery of what is going on centers around a small airport in Center City. And this is where Rosenfelt gets it all wrong. He either knows nothing about how airports and airplanes work in the air space over the US or he doesn't care.

He states as a fact that all planes file flight plans with the FAA and when he discovers that no planes have ever filed such a plan out of this airport he feels he is onto something. In fact, no plane has to file a flight plan unless it is flying under IFR rules. The entire premise of solving the problem is based on a total fabrication and from there on the book lost a lot of interest for me.

I think I will be able to resist buying the next installment from this author. If not, my bad.

This book is such a great read....like I said in my title, a great addtion to this wonderful series. I could not put it down. There were the ususal laughs, Mr. Rosenfelt has a great sense of humor, the regular characters are great, and the "bad guy" characters involved in the story were just creepy enough to make you wonder who did what to whom. I thought I had it all figured out, but the story took a little twist at the end that surprised me.
If you have not read any of this series, it would be okay to start with this one, not like with some series that you have to start with the first book to know what is going on. Of course, if you do start with this one, be warned, you will want to go back and read all the others, they are addictive.

This is number five in the Andy Carpenter series and I've enjoyed each new book as much as the previous ones. If you like the Myron Bolitar series (Harlan Coben) and the Stephanie Plum books (Janet Evanovich), this is the series for you. And no, I'm not getting paid to write this; I don't know any of the authors, though I wish they knew each other. Maybe they do. And maybe they'll collaborate on a mystery featuring Andy, Myron & Stephanie teaming up. Please, guys! I'll buy it, I'll even pre-order it from Amazon.

New Jersey Attorney Andy Carpenter misses his former girlfriend, Laurie Collins. Laurie has moved back to her home town of Findlay, Wisconsin and is acting police chief. Laurie calls and asks Andy to come and defend a college student accused of murdering two girls and burying their bodies behind his house. Andy agrees but finds investigating the case complicated because the girls are from a nearby town. The town is a closed community where all residents are members of a secretive faith, lead by "The Keeper."

This series is starting to wear a bit thin with me. I love animals but Andy's relationship with his dog Tara, gets to be a bit much. Andy is supposed to be a brilliant lawyer but often has the street sense and personal self confidence of a doorknob. My other biggest complaint is Rosenfelt's device of killing off a critical secondary character in each book. It became a cliché of his writing with the last book; now I find myself identifying the "dead" character almost from the beginning. For all that, I'm not ready to give up on the series. I enjoy Rosenfelt's balance of humor and suspense, his dialogue and very strong sense of place. I just want Mr. Rosenfelt to grow in his writing and be better than he is. In the meantime, I'll accept the books for what they are--a light, entertaining read.

Andy Carpenter has it all--well almost. He's is an extremely wealthy and well-known criminal defense attorney from New Jersey who doubles as a 'talking head' on the cable networks when high profile cases break. Life is good--well almost.

The love of Carpenter's life has left New Jersey and as much as he'd like to deny it, he's not over her. But he's working on it. One day his ex, Laurie, calls him from her home town of Findlay, Wisconsin where she's moved to join the local police force. She's acting chief and has arrested a young man, Jeremy Davidson, for a double murder. But she believes he's innocent.

Carpenter agrees to go to Findlay to investigate the case. When he begins to believe in Davidson's innocence, he joins forces with a local attorney to represent him. What he finds is an entire town populated by people who belong to a mysterious religious group; a young man's disappearance; another murder; and to top it off, his life may be in danger.

This is my first experience with David Rosenfelt's novels. As soon as I finished Dead Center, I put all other TBR (to be read) books aside and began reading his previous novel, Bury the Lead. He's that good!

Rosenfelt's Dead Center is a thrilling, fast-paced read with a protagonist that is a wisecracking, smart alecky lawyer with deep feelings for his girl and his dog. Now, that's a great combination as far as I'm concerned. I laughed out loud and turned the pages as fast as I could because it was just plain thrilling.

Armchair Interviews says: Dead Center is a must read. But be prepared as you'll finish it, and then want more. The good thing--he's written several other books, so you'll have more fun ahead.

2006 Summer Reading List - Mini Review

To those of you not familiar with Andy Carpenter, the narrator and star of this and the 4 previous David Rosenfelt novels you are in for a treat. Andy is a wise cracking New Jersey attorney with a penchant for representing the seemingly overwhelmingly guilty. Do not be afraid that you have not tasted the other installments. Andy is a gracious host, and tells you what you need to know about his past cases so there is no need for a road map to understand what has gone on before.

A road map is exactly what Andy needs at the beginning of the book as he and his faithful dog, Tara find themselves traveling from New Jersey to Findlay, Wisconsin. Andy was summoned to Cheeseland by Laurie, his former girlfriend and investigator also Findlay's acting chief of police, to defend an undergrad accused of a brutal double homicide.

Andy does not seem especially suited to life in Wisconsin and Rosenfelt does not seem especially suited for writing about Andy in Wisconsin. One example of this is when the local defense attorney a self admitted busybody asks Andy how he met Laurie. Rosenfelt has already depicted Findlay as a small town where everyone knows everything about everyone else. If that is the case why would a prominent member of the Findlay bar not be familiar with Laurie's murder trial a few years back? All of Findlay should have surely been aware of Laurie's trial and who her attorney was.

Having read all of Rosenfelt's previous Andy stories, I began noticing that I could figure out some of the plot intricacies before I actually read them. While I could not figure out who done it, I actually figured out some of the bumps in the road because Rosenfelt has placed those same bumps in his previous stories.

Those criticisms aside, Dead Center is a very good read. It is not often you read a page turning mystery that is also laugh out loud funny. Rosenfelt and Carpenter even when not at their best are a worthy addition to any ones reading list.

This one was pretty good - not my favorite of the series, but still a fun and entertaining read. I liked the weird cult aspect and the ending was certainly a surprise, but there was something missing from this one... maybe because it took place in Wisconsin rather than New Jersey... or maybe because the usual cast of characters wasn't completely there. My only other complaint is that that all of these frame-ups are adding to make a rather ridiculous series and Marcus' "character" has been reduced into nothing more than a deus ex machina. Still, I am looking forward to reading _Play Dead_ since the first thirty pages that prompted me to read this series.

What a funny funny guy. Great characters. Hilarious little barbs, quips, and comments intertwined with interesting plots.