Book and Audio Review: The K Team by David Rosenfelt

The K Team
Author: David Rosenfelt
Narrator: Fred Berman
Series: K Team Novels (Book 1)
Publication: Minotaur Books (March 24, 2020); Macmillan Audio (March 24, 2020)
Length: 292 p.; 6 hours and 12 minutes

Description: From best-selling mystery author David Rosenfelt comes a new series - a spinoff of the much beloved Andy Carpenter mysteries - about a dynamic new investigative team featuring a determined former cop and his loyal German Shepherd.

Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel, have recently retired from the police force. Not ready to give up the life yet, they come up with a proposal for fellow former cop, Laurie Carpenter, and her investigating partner, Marcus. Laurie and Marcus - who help out Laurie’s lawyer husband Andy on cases - have been chafing to jump back into investigating on their own, so they are in.

They call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon. Their first job as private investigators comes to them from Judge Henry Henderson, who's known as a very tough but fair judge, and they've all come up against him in court at one time or another. Though it's hard to believe, Judge Henderson is being blackmailed and extorted, and he doesn't want to involve the police - he needs the K Team to figure out why.

My Thoughts: This story is a spin-off of the Andy Carpenter mysteries. It stars Corey Douglas, a retired cop, and his also retired K-9 partner Simon Garfunkel along with Laurie Carpenter and Marcus Clark. Andy makes a few appearances in this story too.

They have formed an investigations agency. They work with Andy when he has a case but, since Andy doesn't want to take cases if he can avoid them, they need more work. They are hired by Judge Henry "Hatchet" Henderson because someone is trying to blackmail him.

All of them have been in court with Henderson and all of them find him to be a hard-ass but fair judge. Since his reputation would be on the line if any blackmail attempt becomes public, Henderson wants the K Team to find out who is trying to blackmail him. 

Since one of the items that are being used for blackmail is a substantial bank account in the Cayman Islands in Henderson's name which he knows nothing about, the team uses the date the account started as a place to start investigating. They begin looking at cases the judge was involved with then and what might be coming up in the near future. 

The audience is given a clue in the first chapter of the story which case is relevant but the Team doesn't have our foreknowledge and need to look at a number of cases. One has them investigating a double homicide by the local gang's leader's brother which causes some sidetracking.

While a good part of the story is told from Corey's viewpoint, the plot is moved along by other viewpoints including a couple of hired killers. The plot was nicely twisty with lots of threads and lots of surprises. I liked the way the clues were slowly revealed to the K Team. 

I like the typical Rosenfelt humor with snarky and sarcastic viewpoint characters. Corey takes after Andy in this way. I also liked that a number of recurring characters from the Andy Carpenter mystery have roles in this one like Marcus Clark and accountant and badass wannabe Sam Willis. I liked that Simon Garfunkel has a small role in this one. It is clear that he is Corey's best friend and, as he says, "the best cop (he) ever worked with."

Fans of the Andy Carpenter mysteries will also enjoy this new series. 

Favorite Quote:

My name is Corey Douglas and people know me as an easygoing guy, except when I'm not.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.