Dead Center

The last thing Andy Carpenter expects is for his former girlfriend Laurie Collins to call him and ask him to defend a young man she has arrested for murder. But Andy, and Tara, are off to the wilds of Wisconsin to look into the case.

Jeremy Davidson is accused of murdering his girlfriend Elizabeth and her friend Sheryl and burying their bodies in his parents' yard within steps of his apartment in the family guesthouse. Laurie doesn't believe it and Andy has questions.

Teaming up with local attorney Calvin Marshall who is as snarky as Andy, the two try to find out about the two girls who were both residents of a very private and insular town near Findlay. No one in the town is willing to speak to either attorney. Even calling on the show more computer skills of Andy's friend Sam back home in New Jersey only gives them the barest hint of a way to proceed when he manages to give a possible name to Elizabeth's former boyfriend.

When Jeremy's home is firebombed, Laurie insists that Andy call in Marcus to provide protection for him. But the protection isn't expansive enough and Calvin winds up dead with a broken neck in a supposed car accident. Then, after agreeing to talk to Andy, the former boyfriend is found hanging in his motel room's bathroom after leaving a signed confession.

The confession is enough to get Jeremy's trial cancelled and get Jeremy released from jail, but Andy isn't satisfied. He still wants to find out who actually murdered Elizabeth and Sheryl and the boyfriend. His continued investigations manage to put both him and Laurie in peril.

I'm curious to see where this series goes next. Andy and Laurie have agreed to try a long-distance relationship since, while they love each other, their choices of places to live are incompatible. show less

"DEAD CENTER finds Andy Carpenter reentering the dating scene with comic results. He is surprised at what a hot ticket he seems to be, and this proves to be a mixed blessing at best. His friends are all too eager to provide advice and guidance, but of course they know just as little about the dating world as Andy. Whether the woman he is dating at the moment is terrific or far from it, the spectra of Laurie always hangs over his head. He has strong feelings of bitterness towards her for leaving, but she is, after all, the love of his life. He has had no contact with her at all, and can only assume she is back in Findlay, serving in the number two job on the local police force. Then one day he returns to the office to find Laurie waiting show more for him. Laurie has arrested a young man for murder and, though the evidence clearly called for his arrest, she believes he is innocent. The accused is the son of Laurie's oldest friend and she believes Andy is the best person to represent him. Andy follows Laurie back to Wisconsin where he must explore a secretive religious community that seems to hold the truth about what really happened to the deceased."
The author has an uncanny ability to make me laugh out loud at certain passages that is thoroughly enjoyable. Each installment of this series pulls the reader into Andy Carpenter's world and makes you wish you could linger there just a little bit longer. show less

This is book #5 of the stand-up comedy/mystery/dog-related legal procedural series featuring lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever Tara.

In Dead Center, Andy’s girlfriend Laurie Collins has left Paterson, New Jersey to take her “dream job” on the police force of her old home town in Findlay, Wisconsin. Although she hasn’t seen Andy in four months, she calls and asks him as a favor to come out there and defend a friend of her family, Jeremy Davidson. Jeremy has been charged with the double murder of his girlfriend Liz and her girlfriend Sheryl. The bodies were found in a shallow grave on his property. Blood flecks were spattered in Jeremy’s car. Jeremy’s guilt seems so obvious that ordinarily Andy wouldn’t take the show more case, but he wants to see Laurie again, and so he and his golden retriever Tara make the drive to Wisconsin.

Liz and Sheryl were members of a bizarre religious cult located in Center City, about ten miles from Findlay. The people of this faith have no desire for interference from, or information sharing with, the outside world. Thus, Andy needs help, and he brings some others from his team up to Findlay to help out. Soon they are all in danger. On the bright side however, Laurie seems more conflicted than ever about whether she really wants to live apart from Andy.

Evaluation: One gets the impression that this plot was designed to showcase funny remarks about Wisconsin, and if you’ve ever lived there (as I have) you will get a big kick out of this book. Even aside from the jokes about winters and cheese, however, these humorous mysteries from Rosenfelt never fail to entertain me. I don’t see a Pulitzer in the author’s future, but I do see a lot of loyal readers like myself who love having a witty, diverting read. show less

A relatively entertaining audiobook, but with a host of plot-related flaws. Right off the bat, I felt that the main character, Andy Carpenter, suffered from a bad case of Mary Sue disease: wealthy, powerful, popular, and irresistible to women,he is also a media darling and (at least, so we are told) a fantastic defence lawyer. We are introduced to him when he is still reeling from the loss of his romantic interest and has been celibate for four whole months! Gasp! Tragedy! And clearly all the girl's fault! What in his misogynistic mind is a horrific and coldblooded betrayal was actually her finding her perfect job in her own community where she grew up, and him being unwilling to move to be with her. Because god forbid that a man, even show more one with $25M to spare, ever make any career or location sacrifice for a woman.

Mystery-wise, the evildoer is awfully obvious, the plot requires a large concatenation of circumstances, and I felt like we had a bad case of Did Not Do The Research. There is a nearby oh-so-scary religious cult which is clearly a biased blend of scientology and Mormonism, a rather pathetically unrealistic set of court scenes, and a far too naive defence attorney as the main character. That perhaps irritated me most; detection and initial determination of guilt before accepting a case...well, that isn't how the justice system works, or, indeed, is supposed to work. Fortunately, the narrator's cheery and self-deprecating cynicism, likeable side characters, and a dog elevated this from abysmal to relatively enjoyable. The narrator is not half as funny as he thinks he is, but I'm a sucker for that type of narrator affect. In addition, the much- maligned ex is on the scene, and the narrator is far less bitter and hateful to her in person than in his thoughts. Last, I listened to this on audio and I always get a kick out of anything that Grover Gardner reads. show less

Always a good laugh with Andy Capenter books. In this installment he goes to defend a young client per Laurie's request at her hometown Findlay, WI where she is now Acting Chief of Police.

At Laurie's request, Andy takes on as a client a young man accused of murdering two coeds, one of whom was his former girlfriend. The evidence against him is overwhelming, which is why Laurie as chief of police had to arrest him. But it didn't sit well with her; hence her plea to Andy to defend him. Andy is easily talked into the case. A religious cult figures in, and something smells to high heaven to Andy. Yet he gets to be in the same town as Laurie, so for Andy, things are looking up. Andy wants to prove his client innocent, but that would mean he would be free to return home. Andy's life seems to be one delemma after another. But he always has Tara, his dog, to come home to, so how bad could it be? Great writing and wonderful show more characters in a complex plot will keep you turning pages until the end. show less

Enjoyed the book. It was fun seeing how Andy viewed Findlay. There was a framing element but it wasn't a big deal. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that Marcus just keep appearing, almost nut magic to stay the day. Necessary as it was, it also stretched credibility to the breaking point. Yes, it's fiction but there is a point where a mystery should not be a fantasy with magical saves.