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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
3 3/4 stars...If You Like Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter Formula..., July 7, 2011
This review is from: One Dog Night (Andy Carpenter) (Kindle Edition)
I like David Rosenfelt' books about lawyer Andy Carpenter very much. "One Dog Night", the latest entry, is an entertaining read, featuring all the qualities series followers have come to expect: Andy's self-deprecating and/or outrageous sense of humor ("In fact, of all the mass murderers I have ever met, I think I like Noah Galloway the best."), Andy's obsession with watching sports on television, Andy's reluctance to take cases, Andy's relationship with his live-in lover and private investigator Laurie Collins, Andy's nearly-impossible-to-prove-not-guilty client, Andy's courtroom antics, Andy's super-hacker accountant Sam Willis, and Andy's friends Detective Pete Stanton and newspaper editor Vince Sanders. Readers who appreciate Rosenfelt's formula for this series will like this book. Marcus Clark, a very tough, very scary man who often investigates for Andy, and who is probably my favorite of all the series' minor characters, reveals a little more about himself to Andy on trip to Vegas. Edna, Andy's barely working secretary, and Hike Lang, the extraordinarily pessimistic lawyer who currently assists Andy when he does take a case, are also in the novel. Willie, a former client and Andy's partner in the Tara Foundation, which finds good homes for dogs, makes very minor appearances. Of course, Tara, Andy's golden retriever makes several appearances. I'm an animal fanatic, so I consider Tara the central figure in each book in the series, no matter how much or how little she is in it. Once again she has a dog friend visiting her, this time her friend is Bailey of whom Andy comments: "Becky says she's a mastiff...but I think she might be a horse. I even think I might have bet on her once." In this outing, Andy's client is Noah Galloway, who is arrested for locking 27 people in an apartment building, which he set on fire. Twenty-six of the people died. The fire occurred six years prior to the arrest. Defending Noah is challenging, in part because he admits he committed the crime and wants to be punished for it. As usual, Andy calls upon his detective and newspaper editor friends, as well as on his FBI friend for help. As usual, he gets by with some legal maneuvers that judges would probably not allow in the real world. I do miss the song game that Andy used to play with Sam, and more participation by Willie. Also in this book a few of the same lines were used by more than one character, and they have been used in previous books. It would give the series more sparkle if the dialogue continued to be humerous, but was little more diverse and maybe a new element or two were added to the Carpenter formula. So a three and three-quarters stars. But I'll be buying the next Andy Carpenter for sure. If you've never read the other books in this series, you may want to start with the first one: "Open and Shut".
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You'll like Andy Carpenter, even if you're a cat lover, July 13, 2011
In ONE DOG NIGHT smart-alecky defense attorney Andy Carpenter quits championing dogs in court long enough to defend a human client for once, even if it's a client with whom Andy has a canine connection. ONE DOG NIGHT demonstrates that coincidence doesn't only happen in Bollywood cinema. Noah Galloway is the man what started the ruin of Andy Carpenter's marriage. Some years ago, drug-addled Noah Galloway attempted to break into Andy's house, and Andy's gone-ballistic wife was quick to blame this on Andy's profession. This argument was the first crack in their wedded bliss. Andy Carpenter's divorced now. Andy is independently wealthy and would rather while his time away not trying cases. He'd rather spend resources on his dog rescue group, the Tara Foundation. But it'd make for a hell of a dull narrative, and so here's Noah Galloway again, now a recovered drug addict but now arrested for 26 counts of murder committed six years ago. Noah Galloway believes he's guilty, is resigned to paying for his heinous crime. Except Andy learns that Noah was his golden retriever Tara's previous owner and he visits Noah's cell out of curiousity, and, Bob's your uncle, he's become Noah's defense attorney. His lazy secretary, Edna, is pretty cheesed at this development. She hates making coffee or copies or answering phones or doing pretty much anything secretarial. Despite Noah Galloway's fatalistic attitude, Andy sniffs something odd about the case and it's not too long before he begins questioning his client's self-confessed guilt. The evidence simply doesn't add up. Author David Rosenfelt presses on with his recent habit of alternating chapters between Andy's first person perspective with those focused on the doings of other characters, and mostly villains. The story is well-plotted and nothing ratches up the tension more than prospective witnesses getting bumped off left and right. There's an immediate sense of stakes that go higher even than the burning down of an apartment building and the deliberate chaining of the doors so that the residents are trapped within. Rosenfelt doles out generous helpings of political backstabbing, a dangerous hush up, ruthless blackmail, and a murder spree. All those on top of the expected courtroom hijinks that Andy - Paterson, New Jersey's most snarky defense attorney - so gleefully engages in. Rosenfelt again trots out his cast of interesting characters, and a more quirky, disparate bunch of folks it'll be hard to find: the intimidating, fridge-raiding private eye Marcus Clark; Andy's germophobic law partner Hike; hacker extraordinaire, Sam Willis, who thinks he's ready for field work; the work-shirking Edna, the love of Andy's life and his lead private investigator Laurie Collins; Andy's cop buddy Pete who has a personal stake in the case; and, of course, the glorious Tara. And, as a cherry on top, Rosenfelt introduces a classroom of senior citizen hackers. They don't mind helping out on Andy's case, but they have to be in bed by 8pm. Touting a "defective courage gene," Andy only very reluctantly goes out into the field. Still, credit our cowardly - but I call it "sensible" - hero. He manages to brave a drug lord's nest and brace not one, but two mafia dons. And, as ever, he won't hesitate to fire off a sassy remark to anyone, anyone at all, and his observations are laugh out loud funny. There's a sweetness in how much Andy risks to defend his client, and mostly because he and his client are linked by their love for Tara the glorious golden retriever. ONE DOG NIGHT being a legal thriller and those alternating chapters pretty much clueing us in as to what shady shenanigans are going down, there isn't much of a suspenseful mystery element, really. The fun is in tracking our likable, well-oiled team as they chase each random clue and piece the puzzle together. There's some asskicking action, brought to you by the indomitable Marcus Clark who, let it be said again, will with no invitation straightaway make a beeline for your refrigerator. And for those anticipating a twist or two, maybe the biggest one - for me, anyway - is that just when you thought you'd tapped the centerpiece villain, damn if another sinister bloke doesn't surface to fit the bill. Even though certain plot elements are starting to read too familiar, ONE DOG NIGHT is another involving thriller. Andy Carpenter is righteous and he made me laugh again. And Tara, as ever, is glorious.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great legal thriller, July 10, 2011
For six years, three months and twenty-one days, Noah Galloway waited in anguish for this moment. The FBI arrests Galloway for an arson fire that killed twenty-six people. He will miss his beloved Becky and their nursery school child Adam, but in some ways is glad the end is in sight. A recovered drug addict, Noah asks Patterson, New Jersey defense attorney Andy Carpenter to defend him. Andy says no as he does not take many cases on and besides Noah attempted to break into his home sometime before the deadly inferno. However Noah uses the Tara card to retain Andy as his lawyer; before the attorney rescued his golden retriever Tara, Noah had saved the dog and arranged for Andy to adopt the canine. Although Noah believes he is guilty of the arson mass homicides, he insists he remembers nothing about the blaze due to his drug haze. As Andy plays the court to buy time for his client, his `team" investigates what happened over six years ago. This is a great legal thriller starring New Jersey's least enthused lawyer and his team of likable eccentrics who are crazier than usual. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the arrest is announced and never slows down until the final unlikely but endearing header. Series fans will relish one degree of Tara as the Retriever's first rescuer is legally defended by the canine's second rescuer. Harriet Klausner
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