Bark of Night

No one can write like David Rosenfelt. He has a unique method of writing a suspenseful tale that is laced together with imaginative humor. In this 19th installment, Andy’s vet has presented him with a problem. A new client has dropped off a healthy dog to be euthanized, something the vet wasn’t going to do. Andy gets involved rescuing the dog, but almost before he can turn around, he finds himself defending a young man accused of murdering the dog’s owner. Of course, he says he didn’t do it. The more Andy digs into the case, the stranger it becomes. Bodies start piling up, seemingly unrelated, but if Andy and his team can’t link them together, his young client will be going to prison for a long time. The suspense in this show more mystery will keep you turning pages, but the humor will have you laughing and rolling your eyes at Andy. All I can say is, I wish David Rosenfelt could write faster - it’s too long to wait for the next book to come out. show less

If you’ve read any of this series then you’re familiar with Andy Carpenter, the wisecracking MC. He’s been trying to quit practicing law pretty much since he took the bar exam & it’s not going well. It’s just that those pesky clients keep showing up at his door. Luckily for us, it looks like his retirement plans have been foiled again.

When he takes beloved dog Tara for a visit to the vet, somehow he ends up leaving with a new client. He’s a little French guy named Truman & he’s a good boy, yes he is. He’s also an orphan after his human was recently murdered.

Through bizarre circumstances, Truman ended up being brought in for euthanasia & if there’s one thing Andy hates more than working it’s someone throwing away a show more perfectly good pupper. He begins looking into the owner’s death & before he knows it, he’s representing a 20 year old local man charged with murder. Now he just has to break the news to his team. All the usual cast is back & respond in typical fashion. Sam is elated, Edna is horrified & Hike believes they’re doomed. As for Marcus…well, who knows what he thinks. Probably something scary.

Truman’s owner was a guy named James Haley. He made his living shooting documentaries on various subjects. No one is sure just why he was in Paterson, New Jersy but odds are good he filmed something he shouldn’t have & it’s made a bunch of of seriously bad guys very nervous. In alternate chapters we spend time with these paragons of society & gradually learn what they’re up to. Needless to say, it’s not good. In fact it’s a plan that has repercussions for communities right across the country & before long, bodies are popping up all over. Andy & his crew will need the help of law enforcement on all levels if they’re to survive long enough to clear their client.

This series has become an annual delight for me. If you haven’t picked up any of these books, stop reading immediately & get thee to a bookstore. There’s a reason the series has made it to #19. This outing has everything required for a fast paced, entertaining read….great cast of characters, twisty suspense, plenty of dogs & a guy named Fat Tony. Can’t ask for more than that. show less

Andy Carpenter's next case comes to him via his veterinarian. The vet has had a man drop off a dog to be euthanized. Investigation shows that the dog wasn't his but rather belonged to a man who was recently murdered. Andy wants to find the man who dropped off the dog and finds himself involved in the murder investigation.

Things get more complicated when the man who dropped off the dog is also murdered along with his wife. Then there are the suspicious deaths of homeless men from all over the country. Since the first murder victim was a documentary film maker, Andy and his team investigate to find out if his death was related to his career.

Andy's client appears to have been set up for the crime because he happened to be the victim's show more last interviewee regarding his current film project. Also, items from the scene including the murder weapon were found buried at his house.

As usual for the Andy Carpenter mysteries, the story is told from multiple viewpoints. My favorite is always Andy's viewpoint since I enjoy his sarcastic voice and quick wit. show less

Bark of Night is #19 of this stand-up comedy/mystery/dog-related legal procedural crime series. We have not read all of them, but it’s not a problem to follow the plots no matter which book you pick up.

Andy Carpenter, the main character, is a criminal defense attorney in Paterson, New Jersey who hates to work, but keeps taking on new litigation anyway, albeit reluctantly. Usually a case comes to his attention because of some involvement of a dog. Andy, who came into a lot of money from a previous win in court, prefers spending time with his dog rescue foundation to doing legal work, or any work at all, for that matter.

He is called in for a consultation by his dogs’ veterinarian, and Andy is terrified one of his dogs has a medical show more issue. But the vet wants Andy’s advice on another matter. A healthy French bulldog named Truman was dropped off several days earlier by a man paying a hefty fee to have Truman euthanized. Oddly, however, Truman has a chip indicating that the man who brought him in was not in fact the owner. Furthermore, the newspaper revealed Truman’s real owner had just been murdered. A young kid was arrested right away for the crime and is about to face a jury in what the prosecution thinks is a "slam-dunk" case. But Andy suspects the man who brought Truman in is the guilty party and that the kid was framed.

Thus, Andy once again gets pulled into taking on a client, and as is generally the case, it turns into something much bigger than anyone suspected. In fact, other suspicious and possibly related deaths follow. The good news is, Andy’s client is clearly innocent since he is in jail. The bad news is, Andy and his unorthodox team have to figure out what has been going on and who the real guilty party is before the verdict in his client's case can be returned.

Evaluation: What could be more fun than Andy’s self-deprecating snarky commentary on everyone and everything? All of the author’s books in this series are quick reads and uniformly enjoyable. show less

This legal mystery and courtroom drama features Andy Carpenter a lawyer who also rescues dogs. In this episode, Andy is consulted by Tara's vet after a healthy French bulldog has been brought in to be euthanized. Turns out Truman has a microchip showing the client who brought him in is not the owner. This becomes a much bigger issue when the real owner is found to have been murdered. Andy is hooked again. As well as a dependable plot, I love Rosenfelt's humour.

I've read just about every David Rosenfelt book out there (except the thrillers). He's an easy writer that tells a yarn that's easy to read. I've enjoyed most of them over the years, but they're getting beyond repetitive at this point. He could just list the characters' main attributes at the beginning and quit re-describing Marcus and Willie and Hike, et al, every time.

I haven't gone back to look at older titles, but this is also the first time I've had issues with Rosenfelt's use of semi-colons. It's a silly thing, I know, but I really like semi-colons and think most people don't use them enough (or correctly). But here they really started to jump out at me. Take this example from the top of page 199:

She nods. "Yes; that's why I show more knew I should come talk to you. He is the man from the movies."
Now we're getting somewhere. "And Vincent spoke to him?"
"Yes, at our house. They spoke alone; I don't know what they talked about." Then, "You're a detective; can you help me find out what happened to Vincent?"

This page alone has seven semi-colons. That's more, I dare say, than most books have in all their pages. Plus, does anyone really speak in semi-colons? After a while, instead of seeming novel, they just seem lazy; use a period once and a while, or a comma splice just to mix things up.

Anyway, if you've read other Rosenfelt books and don't mind the retread of character's outstanding characteristics, go ahead and give this one a try. It won't hurt, but I do think it might be time for Andy to really and truly retire. show less

Bark of Night is the 19th Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt. Bark starts with Andy’s golden retriever Tara on a routine visit to the vet when Andy’s vet calls him into the back room. Fearing the worst, Andy discovers that the problem is not with Tara but the veterinarian has another problem he wants his help with. It seems a man brought in a healthy french bulldog named Truman and asked to have him euthanized. The vet took the dog but objected to euthanizing a perfectly healthy dog. Doing some checking, he found out that the man was not Truman's owner. This infuriates both Andy and the vet but the issue is further complicated because Truman's real owner has been murdered.

Andy of course agrees to help the dog find a new home show more and try to find out what happened to the owner. Inevitably the police arrest someone whom Andy suspects is innocent and Andy reluctantly takes on another case. So much for being retired. Digging into the case Andy finds a lot of odd bits of information that doesn’t quite add up. It involves mob enforcers, a Florida connection and sponge diving. Andy and the gang, including his wife and her former partner Marcus, continue digging into the complicated plot and it isn't long before more bodies turn up.

The plot never actually gets too heavy and Rosenfelt keeps dropping in one-liners that are funnier than they should be. Lines like the description of the mob boss Fat Tony, who is called that because he is fat, and his name is Tony. Andy’s case of course winds up in front of a judge where Andy has to do his typical courtroom antics in order to make sure that an innocent boy does not wind up behind bars and the true culprits are brought to justice.

Bark of Night is another great entry in the Andy Carpenter series that is it is both entertaining and fun. The events move along at a steady clip with lots of excitement along the way and plenty of sly humor. Andy and his crew are a lot of fun to spend time with which is a large part of this series enduring success.

Grover Gardner does another amazing job with the narration. His tone perfectly captures Andy’s dry wit and keeps the story humming along and keeps you chuckling along with it. Andy Carpenter stories are a lot of fun and this one is no different. This is sure to please longtime fans of the series and anyone new to the series should have no trouble jumping right in.

I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher. show less