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"Down to the Wire"
March 16th.
"A dynamite thriller. Rosenfelt's sly humor, breathless pacing, and terrific plot twists keep the pages spinning toward the showdown on New Year's Eve in Times Square. " (starred review) - Publisher's Weekly |
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Andy Carpenter gains possession of an adorable Bernese puppy whose owner was brutally murdered. Few can rival Andy's affection for dogs, and he will do whatever it takes to insure that this little pup doesn't fall into the wrong hands. However, his playful new friend is valued by several people, many of whom are willing to resort to violence to get what they want. It will take more than Andy's usual courtroom theatrics to save this dog, including a little help from his beloved golden retriever, Tara. Andy soon discovers that anyone around him is in danger, including his long-time girlfriend Laurie, and he will have to muster all of his wits to save those he holds most dear. |
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Tim Wallace’s wife died in a boating accident several months ago. Tim was the only eye witness, and one New Jersey cop is sure he killed her. He didn’t, but even if the police eventually clear his name, he’ll never get over this terrible tragedy.
On New Year’s Eve, his two best friends and business partners finally convince him to go out for the first time since Maggie’s death, and at their neighborhood pub just a few minutes before midnight, things in Tim Wallace’s life go from bad to worse. “Can you keep a secret? A really big one?” a drunken stranger asks him. Before Tim can say anything or turn away, the man confesses to a months-old murder, even offering as proof the location of the woman’s body. “Now it’s your problem,” he says and walks away.
When the man turns out to have been telling the truth, Tim’s life and work are put under the microscope again by the cops, and this time they’re not giving up. But neither is Tim, even when things keep getting worse for him, and eventually he realizes he’s the only person who can figure out what’s really going on---even if it kills him.
David Rosenfelt, popular author of six Andy Carpenter mysteries, including the recent hit Play Dead, delivers his first standalone with Don’t Tell a Soul, combining the suspense and great characters of his mystery series with an unputdownable, thrilling read. |
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Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter's affection for golden retrievers, especially his own beloved Tara. After he astonishes a New Jersey courtroom by successfully appealing another golden's death sentence, Andy discovers that this gentle dog is a key witness to a murder that took place five years before. Andy pushes the boundaries of the law even further as he struggles to free an innocent man by convincing an incredulous jury to take canine testimony seriously. It will take all the tricks Andy's fertile mind can conceive to get to the bottom of a remarkable chain of impersonations and murder, and save a dog's life-and his own-in the process. |
Booklist review (starred rating):
In the sixth Andy Carpenter mystery, Rosenfelt turns his love of Golden Retrievers into a cracking good yarn. Andy, the New Jersey attorney whose inheritance of $22 million has diluted his work ethic (“I am work-ethically challenged,” he tells us), tends to take a case only when it interests him. When he learns that a beautiful retriever is scheduled to be put down after biting its owner, he decides to represent the dog in court. He is successful, but soon his delight at saving the animal’s life turns to amazement—or at least bemusement—when he discovers that the dog may be a key witness in a five-year-old murder. There are many ways this novel should have failed (the whole premise is iffy, for starters), but Rosenfelt skillfully avoids every trap into which he might have fallen. There is no way you can read this novel without becoming completely caught up in the story As always, Andy’s offbeat, outspoken personality shines on every page, and the balance of humor and mystery is dead-on. There is nothing else to say about this fine novel, except this: read it as soon as you can. —David Pitt
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Trading the refineries and factories of Paterson for the frozen pastures
of Findlay, Wisconsin, Andy soon finds himself in a small town handling
a big-time double homicide case. He looks into Jeremy’s romance with one
of the victims…and the possible involvement of a bizarre religious
cult—one that may sanction the most unholy, and vicious, of acts.
While Andy tries to save Jeremy, make sense
of his love life, and find a decent pizza for his beloved dog, Tara, the
secrets of an ultra-religious community begin to rain down on him like
bricks from a cracked fortress. But as Edgar®-nominated Rosenfelt proves
to us once again, the path to the truth is littered with lies and
misdirection. And before it’s all over, the unexpected is the only thing
Andy can count on.
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An excerpt:
“Is there anything
else we need to discuss?” Judge Timmerman asks, clearly hoping that the
answer will be ‘no’. I could come up with other diversions, but that’s
all they would be, and they really wouldn’t divert. The fact is, I could
strip naked, jump on the defense table, and sing “Mammy”, and it
wouldn’t be the lead story on the news tonight. The lead will be that
Kenny Schilling, football star, is facing the death penalty.
[p. 45]
First at the crime scene, Andy Carpenter wishes
he never saw the folded torso with the large red stain on its back. The
victim is Tony Preston, wide receiver for the New York Jets, and the
suspect is Kenny Schilling, the New York Giants’ star running back who
is clamoring for Andy’s services. The upcoming high-profile murder case
will be the benchwarming Andy’s chance to get back into the legal game.
It will also prove a handy distraction from the awful possibility that
Laurie Collins—the private investigator and living creature Andy adores
most next to Tara, his cherished golden retriever—is about to leave
Paterson forever.
Digging into the case, Andy stumbles onto some of
the seamier undercurrents rushing beneath the large-guy camaraderie,
big-buck cushiness, and bone-mashing fun that is pro football. And he
discovers that Preston’s death is similar to a series of other
mysterious murders—all seemingly unrelated yet connected by a horrible
secret from many years ago. Despite the crushing evidence, Andy begins
to believe in his client’s innocence.
But when danger finds someone close to him, the
unperturbed defender knows he’s attracted the attention of a powerful
enemy—one who will do anything to take Andy permanently off the field…
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Recent Articles written by David
Whatever You Do, Don't Kill the Dog
Integrity and Humility
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BURY THE LEAD
Mysterious Press
June 2004
ISBN # 089296782X
272 Pages
Hardcover
Read the first Chapter |
Official Selection
of the NBC Today Book Club.
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Synopsis
His streak of murder case acquittals made
him a regular on cable talk shows. His recent $22 million inheritance
bought him a dog rescue operation named the Tara Foundation after his
own beloved golden retriever. Yet after turning down cases left and
right, Andy Carpenter thinks he's facing a midlife crisis. He knows he
needs to get back to some real work as fast as a felonious world will
allow.
When a friend, a newspaper owner, calls in a favor and asks him to
protect his star reporter, Andy is less than thrilled. His new client is
Daniel Cummings, a journalist who is being used as a mouthpiece by a
brutal serial killer. Things only get worse when Daniel is discovered
near the body of the murderer's latest victim. And after Andy himself
starts collecting anonymous death threats, he hears the news every
defense lawyer dreads...and moves to within a dangerous keystroke of
becoming tomorrow's obituary.
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First Degree
Read the first chapter!
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"Clever plot twists, deft
legal maneuverings and keen wit boost Rosenfelt's accomplished follow-up
to his Edgar-nominated debut, Open and Shut (2002)..."
-- Publishers Weekly
$23.95 Hardback
Available May 14, 2003
An
unabashed animal lover, Andy Carpenter has established a fast reputation
as that rare lawyer who saves both dogs and humans from Death Row.
Lately, with his newfound fortune, he has given up his home in the
fashionable suburbs and returned to the house in which he grew up in the
asphalt heart of Paterson. These days his office is eerily quite, except
for the scraping pen of his secretary, Edna, as she navigates across and
down the New York Times crossword puzzle. Though his wallet isn't
hurting, Andy's soul hungers for a case to sink his legal teeth into.
He's
about to get his wish. And it'll be a first degree kick in the head.
It begins
with the discovery of a once dirty, now decapitated cop. Then not one
but three prime suspects emerge. The first is fingered by the police.
The second walks unannounced into Andy's office to confess to the crime.
But most uncannily of all, the third is none other than Laurie Collins,
Andy's lead investigator...and the love of his life. Now to clear
Laurie, Andy must spring a brilliant yet desperate courtroom trap --
before it snaps them both in its steely, lethal jaws.
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Open
And Shut
Read the first chapter! |
"Written with the skill of a
veteran, Rosenfelt's debut legal thriller boasts fresh characters, an
engaging narrator, and a plot that forces readers to keep flipping the
pages..."
-- From Booklist
$23.95 Hardback
Now in paperback, too!
Attorney Andy Carpenter's
legal maneuvers are legion in and out of the courtrooms of Paterson, New
Jersey. A talented lawyer who knows how to play all the cards, he is
torn between mending a marriage that no longer works and growing
attached to a beautiful, no-nonsense private investigator. Besides his
love for sports, Andy also adores Tara, a golden retriever clearly
smarter than half the lawyers who clog the courts of Passaic County.
Then one
day the fun stops.
It all
begins when Andy's father, venerated ex-district attorney Nelson
Carpenter, asks him to take the appeals case of Willie Miller, a young
black man on death row for the murder of a white woman. Nelson himself
had prosecuted Miller but refuses to disclose why he wants Andy to
represent the convicted man. A few days later, Nelson drops dead in
front of his son at a game in Yankee Stadium.
Suddenly
Andy finds himself the inheritor of a staggering fortune he never knew
his father had. The astonished advocate soon unearths a mysterious old
photograph of a much younger Nelson, a picture that may have a sinister
connection to the Willie Miller case. But before he can sort out the
truth behind his father's life and death, Andy receives an anonymous
threat -- delivered in a most terrifying fashion.
Now the
quick witted Andy, with his client's life hanging in the balance, must
uncover a decades-old secret, one so shocking and unthinkable as to
threaten everything he believes in and everyone he has ever loved.
Caught in an explosive endgame, he will face the heat of a deadly
political firestorm...where the wrong move will close out his case for
good. |
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