Dog Day Afternoon by David Rosenfelt Narrator: Grover Gardner
Series: Andy Carpenter #29
Published by Macmillan Audio on July 2, 2024
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Mystery, Legal
Length: 7 hrs 13 mins
Pages: 304
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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Retired lawyer Andy Carpenter has run the Tara Foundation—the dog rescue organization named after his beloved golden retriever—for years. It's always been his calling, even as Andy's pulled into representing clients in court. His investigator, Marcus Clark, has been at Andy's side for a long time. Even though they've known each other for years, Marcus keeps his personal life a mystery.
So it’s a shock when Marcus arrives at the Tara Foundation with two strangers in tow. Turns out Marcus takes disadvantaged young men under his wing, gets them jobs, a place to live, and a chance at a different life. And they want a dog. Andy’s specialty. One of the young men, Nick Williams, instantly falls in love with one of the dogs, Daisy.
When there’s a mass shooting at Nick’s work, leaving six dead, all signs point to Nick. Marcus, who's never asked Andy for anything, asks Andy for help. Despite Nick's troubled background, Andy trusts his friend and takes the case.
Two reasons I keep coming back to this series – adorable covers and Grover Gardner as the narrator. It doesn’t even really matter what the mystery is. Wannabe-retired lawyer Andy Carpenter is called in to defend a dog lover who is accused of a crime they didn’t commit. Andy and his team find out who the real bad guy is. Andy’s client doesn’t end up in jail. This time around it’s a young man accused of killing 6 people at his workplace.
The plot is a bit complicated, but all of the regulars are back, human and canine, to help sort it out. Andy is his sarcastic, funny, in real life would be obnoxious but works well in fiction, self. As is often the case, the solution is bigger than I really like in my mysteries. I like more personal motives and less organized crime, but it’s not out of the ordinary for a Carpenter book and I do enjoy the characters and humor enough to make up for it.
About David Rosenfelt
Rosenfelt graduated from New York University and then decided to work in the movie business. After being interviewed by his uncle, who was the President of United Artists, he was hired and worked his way up the corporate culture. Rosenfelt eventually became the marketing president for Tri-Star Pictures. He married and had two children during this period.
Rosenfelt left the corporate industry and wrote screenplays for movies and television. He turned to writing novels and has become quite successful. In 1995, he and his wife started the “Tara Foundation” which has saved almost 4,000 dogs. He is a dog lover and supports more than two dozen dogs
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I read the first few in this series – it is impossible not to grow fond of Andy and his circle of friends and his dogs. I know the area where the books are set a bit which I also appreciate. Not sure why I stopped reading them but perhaps it was because they were all the same (that is why I stopped reading Maisie Dobbs too, despite enjoying them). However, sometimes one wants something fairly predictable and I can see this would be a good audiobook. The one I am listening to now (The Various Haunts of Men) is interspersed with nasty commentary from (I assume) the murderer. I can sort of skip over these in book form but not on audio, which is a pity!
I don’t think I would enjoy the bits of commentary from the murderer either.
Honestly, I don’t mind a bit of predictability.