I haven't been reading the series in order but I'm starting NOW to catch up with the ones I have missed! Andy Carpenter and Tara, the "dog that will never die" is just wonderful escapism -- his quirks are just perfect!! ( )

I love these books on audio, and I discovered this time around that 1.25 is the sweet spot for listening speed. They’re short, funny legal mysteries, and Grover Gardner is perfect as Andy. I figured out a lot this time, but it was still lots of fun. One of the resolutions felt a little too tidy, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book. Mystery isn’t my main genre, but this series is a keeper. ( )

In this fourth Andy Carpenter mystery, Andy is hired to defend Kenny Schilling who is the new star running back for the New York Giants. He is accused of murdering Troy Preston who is another player for the Giants.

Things don't start off well for Andy or for Kenny. They meet when Kenny is holding off the police from entering his home where Preston's body is found stuffed in a closet.

As Andy and his team investigate, they learn that Preston was not only using drugs but selling them. In order to prove reasonable doubt, Andy explores the possibility that Preston was killed by a local drug dealer which angers the dealer enough to put a hit out on Andy requiring him to seek protection from Marcus and his dog rescue partner Willie.

But Preston's death is not the only one with a possible link to Kenny. He was in Wisconsin at a hunting party composed of fellow football players when one of the players died in an accidental shooting. As a young man named Adam who came to New Jersey to write a potential movie script about Andy's role in Willie Miller's successful trial begins helping Andy investigate this case, he soon learns that that wasn't the only death that happened near Kenny. And when Adam is murdered in Andy's office the first thought is that he was killed by the drug dealer in a case of mistaken identity. But the fact that his notes were stolen leads to a different conclusion.

Is Andy defending a possible serial killer?

And, while all of this is going on, Andy is dealing with personal life difficulties. His girlfriend Laurie has an opportunity to move back to her hometown in Wisconsin and get back into law enforcement. She spends the whole book making up her mind about what she wants for her future.

This was another excellent episode in the Andy Carpenter series. ( )

I STEP OFF THE PLANE, and for the first time in my life, I’m in Los Angeles. I’m not sure why I’ve never been here before. I certainly haven’t had any preconceived notions about the place, other than the fact that the people here are insincere, draft-dodging, drug-taking, money-grubbing, breast-implanting, out-of-touch, pâté-eating, pompous, Lakers-loving, let’s-do-lunching, elitist scumbags.

But here I am, open-minded as always.

This was the opening lines of the book, typical of the style of writing for the series. The banter is entertaining, as always, and the mystery is fun and complex (fun if you don't mind good guys dying).

It was not a simple mystery to solve, and even when it seemed to be mostly solved, there was a sharp twist near the end, and it went off in a wild tangent. I'll be reading the next one in the series very soon, I'm sure. ( )

Enjoyed this mystery, would read more. Characterization was a little flat, but the story was good. Lawyer who takes on mysterious cases. ( )