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. ( )

This book has so many complicated pieces....how on earth does Rosenfelt keep all of this straight as he writes??? I love how his characters continue in all of the books. Just GREAT. again!! ( )

Pretty typical Andy Carpenter, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I really like the series and the people.

Normally, Andy wont take a case unless he's sure the defendant is innocent. In this one, the defendant himself thinks he's guilty, but nobody else agrees. What's worse is that the crime involved burning a group of people trapped in a building to supposedly get revenge on drug dealers that lived there and would not give him any more credit to buy drugs. Not exactly the type of guy that endears himself to the jury.

The prosecution has a confession purportedly made to a "friend", dna evidence on a gas can found at the scene, and witnesses to the argument with the dealers. It looks bleak the whole way. Even the defence admits they would vote to convict.

But as usual, Andy comes through in the end. I don't think this is a spoiler, because he always comes through in the end. The fun parts are always how he does it. ( )

I'm an unabashed fan of David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series of books. I was first introduced to the Andy Carpenter book series several years ago after hearing that the books take place in the NY/NJ metropolitan area, and correctly assumed I'd enjoy reading the casual descriptions of actual places and towns I'm familiar with.
The protagonist, Andy Carpenter, is something of a self-deprecating, smart-@ss north Jersey criminal defense attorney, who's happier in a sports bar than in a court room, and would rather be hanging out with his girl friend and his golden retriever than working. That works well for Carpenter, since he had benefited from a large inheritance, became independently wealthy, and rarely takes on a client. When he does, it's because he believes in his client's innocence, and needs to be defended.
In "One Dog Night", Carpenter's takes on a client with an advanced degree in chemical engineering from Stanford who had been accused of arson / murder. The client had fallen on hard times, and became addicted to drugs after getting hooked on pain killers following treatment for an injury. Carpenter took on the apparently guilty client in what appeared to be an open and shut case, but he and his investigative team found reasons to believe in the client's innocence, and set out to prove it. ( )

law-enforcement, lawyers, conspiracy, framed, murder, murder-investigation, family-dynamics, friendship, dogs, contract-killer, situational-humor, snark-fest, verbal-humor, ex-cop, greed*****

Take a wisemouthed lawyer who can afford to take semi retirement by only representing innocent clients while supporting an animal shelter, add in that his wife is no longer law enforcement but works as his private investigator and more and you have the baseline for this convoluted mystery. There are many other people who help Andy find out what the truth really is and make it courtroom admissible. This one is kind of scary in the *it is uncomfortably possible* sense. No spoilers, and the snarkfest keeps it from being too realistic. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and the characters certainly are, but there's no need for spoilers or an attempt at a summary. I found it to be a real brain grabber and it is one in a series of interesting and well written mysteries. At no time does the reader feel lost or as if missing background info.
Grover Gardner narrates this complicated snarkfest very well! ( )