ARC Review: Bark Humbug by David Rosenfelt

Bark Humbug
Author: David Rosenfelt
Series: Andy Carpenter (Book 34)
Publication: Minotaur Books (October 13, 2026)

Description: Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter helps a desperate sister investigate the widely publicized murder of a gubernatorial candidate in Bark Humbug, the latest Christmas mystery in David Rosenfelt's bestselling series.

This time, Andy is serious about retiring. Besides, he can't hear the sound of his phone ringing over the football game. But when the local newspaper asks him to participate in their Christmas spread of local celebrities and their dogs, he pauses the game and brings Tara along for the ride.

When the photographer comes to take pictures of him and the dogs, he instead opens the door to Sharon Lowery, who devised the newspaper story just to get Andy's attention and beg him for help. Her brother, Jon, is wanted for murder and is on the run. However, if Andy agrees to hear Jon out, he'll turn himself in with the hope that Andy will represent him and reunite him with his dog.

It's a dangerous situation, and between the media circus surrounding the murder and Jon's volatile position, Andy knows that when Jon is found, someone could get hurt. But Andy respects Sharon's dedication to her brother, and in an effort to keep Jon--and the public--safe, Andy agrees to talk to Jon. Andy decides to help Jon and slowly uncovers a web of conspiracies. Determined to keep Jon out of jail, Andy gathers the crew to investigate.

David Rosenfelt returns with Andy Carpenter's classic disdain for Christmas but love for dogs and justice.

My Thoughts: The 34th Andy Carpenter mystery starts when he very reluctantly agrees to a newspaper interview. He only agrees because it is about local celebrities and their dogs and Tara deserves all the recognition. Only the newspaper article is a scam. 

Sharon Lowery, the supposed reporter, really wants to see Andy to convince him to represent her brother Jon who has been accused of murdering the local mayor and one of his largest contributors. 

Andy had met Jon since he adopted a dog named Luna from Andy's foundation, but that wouldn't necessarily be enough to pull Andy out of his self-imposed retirement. Andy announces himself as Jon's lawyer when the peaceful surrender is turned into a SWAT event by the State Police.

All of the evidence is circumstantial but there is a lot of it. Andy's investigation leads to learning that the mayor was taking bribes all around for little things like drug running and money laundering. When two men associated with his crimes are also murdered, the case against Jon should be simpler. However, since he mayor was working for the two other murder victims, it is hard to understand why they might have wanted him dead.

Andy and his team pull off their usual tricks with Sam digging into the internet on sites legal and not-so legal and Marcus intimidating in his usual silent way. And then there is Andy who is his usual smart-mouthed, sarcastic self. 

This was another enjoyable episode in this long-running series. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Outfoxed by David Rosenfelt

Outfoxed
Author: David Rosenfelt
Series: Andy Carpenter (Book 14)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 19, 2016)

Description: Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter spends as much time as he can working on his true passion, the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs. Lately, Andy has been especially involved in a county prison program where inmates help train dogs the Tara Foundation has rescued to make them more adoptable, benefiting both the dogs and the prisoners. One of the prisoners Andy has been working with is Brian Atkins, who has 18 months left on a 5-year term for fraud. Brian has been helping to train Boomer, an adorable fox terrier the Tara Foundation rescued from a neglectful owner. Brian and Boomer are clearly a terrific match. In fact, Andy hopes that Brian will adopt Boomer himself, once his sentence is up. But one day, Andy arrives at the prison to discover that Brian has used Boomer to make an ingenious escape, and man and dog are both in the wind. The next day, the man on whose testimony Brian was convicted is found murdered. Brian is caught and arrested for the crime, though he forcefully protests his innocence. Suddenly, Andy finds himself with a new client in Brian and a new dog in Boomer. And as he starts to dig deeper into the murder and the events leading up to it, Andy realizes he might be putting them all in far more danger than anyone had realized.

My Thoughts: The fourteenth book in the Andy Carpenter series has reluctant lawyer Andy handling the murder case of one the convicts who takes part in his dog training program at a local prison. Brian Atkins has only 18 months left in his term for fraud. He escapes from prison bringing Boomer with him and then is seen fleeing the home of his former partner who lies murdered inside along with the body of Brian's ex-wife. 

Brian feels guilty for not being able to save his ex-wife and is going to plead guilty even though he didn't commit the murders. Andy convinces him to plead innocent even though it will mean coming out of his self-imposed retirement. 

Andy's investigation into Brian's partner and ex-wife and the tech company they founded leads to crimes by local mobster Dominic Petrone. Everyone in law enforcement would like to get something on Petrone and put him away. Andy finds the way. The only problem is that nothing he finds will help in his current trial or help to prove Brian didn't kill his partner and ex-wife.

I enjoyed this story. Andy has a wonderful, snarky way of telling his own story. I like the variety of side characters including Andy's accountant who'd love to be a PI, his pessimistic partner Huck, and ever inscrutable Marcus. I also enjoy Andy's relationships with his wife Laurie and newly adopted son Ricky. 

I bought this one September 29, 2023. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: Who Let the Dog Out? by David Rosenfelt

Who Let the Dog Out?
Author: David Rosenfelt

Narrator: Grover Gardner
Series: Andy Carpenter (Book 13)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 21, 2015); Macmillan Audio

Length: 6 hours and 41 minutes

Description: A lawyer by day-and then only when he's forced to take on new cases-Andy Carpenter's true passion is the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs with his friend Willie Miller. So it's frightening when Willie calls him to say the alarm has gone off at the foundation building, and there's clearly been a break-in. It turns out that a recently rescued dog, nicknamed Cheyenne since her arrival at the foundation, has been stolen. Andy and Willie track the missing dog to a house in downtown Paterson, New Jersey and sure enough, they find the dog...standing right next to a dead body. The man had been gruesomely murdered mere minutes before Andy and Willie arrived. Could it be a coincidence? Or could the dog theft somehow be connected to the killing?

Andy takes Cheyenne safely back to the foundation building, and that should be the end of his involvement, but Andy's curiosity-and his desire to keep the dog from further harm-won't let him stop there. The cops have just arrested a man named Tommy Infante for the murder, but as Andy looks into the circumstances surrounding the break-in and the dog theft, he starts to wonder if Infante might actually be innocent. And when Andy takes Infante on as a client and starts searching in earnest for evidence that will exonerate him, what Andy starts to discover terrifies him. The murder might be just one small cog in a plot with far-reaching implications, and unless Andy can uncover the truth in time, thousands of lives could be in imminent danger.

Once again David Rosenfelt has written a fast-paced and clever mystery with his characteristic blend of humor, larger-than-life characters, and propulsive plotting.

My Thoughts: Andy Carpenter's next case begins the alarms go off at his dog rescue and he and Willie find that a dog has been stolen. Luckily, the dog's collar had a tracker so that Willie and Andy could go to where the dog was. Unfortunately, the find the dog and a murdered man who apparently stole her. 

When a man is arrested for the thief's murder, Andy is curious. He learns that Tommy Infante had been seen arguing and threatening the man in a local bar. When the man died the same way Tommy threatened to kill him, it seemed a slam-dunk to arrest Tommy for the murder. But Andy isn't so sure. He finds himself taking on Tommy's case and investigating.

The investigation leads from diamond smuggling to weapons dealing to a potential invasion of a small town in Maine. And all along the way the reader is treated to Andy's sarcastic point of view. I especially enjoyed the way he is manipulating his newly adopted son into playing baseball. I also love his relationship with Laurie. 

I bought this one September 14, 2023. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: One Dog Night by David Rosenfelt

One Dog Night
Author: David Rosenfelt
Series: Andy Carpenter Mysteries (Book 9)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 5, 2011)

Description: Lawyer Andy Carpenter will have to pull out all of his tricks to get to the bottom of this cold case turned white hot in One Dog Night, the latest in David Rosenfelt's popular mystery series.

For six years Noah Galloway has lived with a horrible secret and the fear that his rebuilt life could be shattered at any moment. Now his dread has become a certainty, and he has been arrested for the arson murder of twenty-six people.

What he needs is defense lawyer Andy Carpenter, who most definitely is not in the market for a new client. So Noah plays his hole card: a shared love for Andy’s golden retriever, Tara, and the knowledge that Andy wasn’t her first owner—Noah rescued Tara first. When Noah wasn’t able to care for her any longer, he did everything in his power to make sure that she was placed in the right home: Andy’s.

Andy soon learns that the long-ago event that may destroy Noah’s life is only the beginning of an ongoing conspiracy that grows more deadly by the day.

My Thoughts: The ninth Andy Carpenter mystery has Andy defending the man who rescued and owned Andy's beloved golden retriever Tara before Andy. Noah Galloway was a chemical engineer turned drug addict when he surrendered Tara to the shelter where Andy found her. Now, six years later has rebuilt his life but he's been keeping a terrible secret. He believes that he was responsible for the deaths of twenty-six people in one of the worst arson fires in Paterson's history. 

Despite Noah's desire to plead guilty to save his wife and small child from the horrors of a trial, Andy isn't so sure. He has lots of questions concerning the man who went to the FBI six years after the event and said that Noah had confessed the crime - complete with all the details -- to him and now his conscience has convinced him to go to the FBI. Even more questions arise when that oh-so-helpful witness is murdered in Las Vegas and can't be cross-examined by Andy. 

And Andy has questions about a man who follows Laurie and him and who is then killed by a sniper before Marcus can question him. Phone records hacked by Sam the accountant raise the question of some large conspiracy where framing Noah is just one small cog. But can Andy discover what is going on before his client is convicted for murders he did not commit?

It takes Andy's whole team including a group of computer hacking Jewish octogenarians before all the pieces come together for a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed this story with its complex plot and great characters. Andy is my favorite fictional lawyer.

Favorite Quote:

Because the idea that trials are a search for the truth is just a myth. Trials are a search for that which the jury will believe is the truth.

I bought this one in November 2022 when it was a Kindle Deal. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Unleased Holiday by Victoria Schade

Unleashed Holiday
Author: Victoria Schade
Publication: Berkley (September 26, 2023)

Description: When an old rival reappears right before the holidays, a professional dog trainer must decide if the melting frost between them can make up for their ruff past, from the USA Today bestselling author of Dog Friendly.

Chelsea Higgins is doing just fine. She’s heading into the holidays at the helm of a thriving dog training business, and she’s got a mellow senior dog at home to keep her warm at the end of the day. What more could she need? Enter certified gym bro Andrew Gibson: Chelsea’s former nemesis, and now the newest neighbor in her business complex, who also wants to expand into the vacant space Chelsea’s been eyeing for months. Who cares if it’s the season of joy? Let the turf war begin.

When an unfortunate (and literal) run-in with Andrew’s lawless dog leaves Chelsea with a bum wrist, the two strike a deal: Andrew will help Chelsea rehab the injury if she’ll work with him to train his adorably uncivilized boxer.

Their typical bickering soon turns to bantering, and Chelsea finds herself inexplicably drawn to the man she thought she had nothing in common with. As she gets to know Andrew and his parents, she realizes she needs to refocus on her own family, especially with a milestone Christmas speeding toward them. But Chelsea can't help wondering if she and Andrew are training for keeps, or if this unexpected Christmas gift is just too good to be true.

My Thoughts: This contemporary romance was engaging and a quick read. It hits a lot of the romance memes. It is an enemies to lovers romance. At least it is on the heroine's part. She has an embarrassing memory of a drunken hookup with the hero. 

Chelsea Higgins runs a successful dog training business. When she learns that her new next-door neighbor is Andrew Gibson, she's less than thrilled. They have known each other since college when he was her best friend's roommate. Now he's opening a gym next door and has an untrained deaf boxer that he doesn't keep on a leash often enough for Chelsea.

The rivalry they had in college soon turns to bantering and to romance as Chelsea gets to know the real Andrew as opposed to the person she made him in her mind when they were in college together. 

Besides the romance, Chelsea is also still dealing with the death of her father from cancer and the changes that has made in her family. She's also distanced herself from her best friends as a part of her grief. 

I liked the people in this story, and I really liked the dogs. Chelsea's senior dog Birdie and her new puppy Edith and Andrew and his deaf Boxer named Duke were all active characters in this romance. 

Fans of contemporary romance will enjoy this one.

Favorite Quote:

It was just like Carly to call me on my b.s., but she didn't understand my history with Andrew. Sure, I'd always been quick to knock him down a few pegs, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. With Andrew, I had no choice but to be on the defensive. I'd always forced myself to ignore my embarrassing involuntary response to him--that seasick, racing heartbeat, shaky hands feeling--because whenever we were together his "jokes" didn't stop, and I was his favorite target.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.