Publishers Weekly
05/20/2019
In Edgar finalist Rosenfelt’s enjoyable 19th mystery featuring Paterson, N.J., defense attorney Andy Carpenter (after 2018’s Deck the Hounds), Andy is incensed when his vet informs him that someone left a French bulldog called Buster at the vet’s with instructions to put the dog down. But the dog’s microchip says his name is Truman, and he belongs to James Haley, a documentary filmmaker who was recently murdered. The police arrest 20-year-old Joey Gamble for the crime, whom Haley interviewed in his apartment earlier in the evening of the murder. Since the man who brought Truman in to be euthanized was a known gang enforcer, Andy thinks that Joey has been set up, and so he mobilizes his formidable investigative team to help him find Haley’s real killer. Rosenfelt does a great job of unfolding an intricate plot as Andy slowly builds a case to exonerate Joey. Andy is a smart, witty, relatable lead with a lot of heart, and he and his cohorts are a pleasure to spend time with. This is a treat for mystery readers and dog lovers. Author tour. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House. (July)
From the Publisher
"One of the best hooks ever by an author who specializes in them . . . Even dog haters should lap it up." – Kirkus Reviews
“Rosenfelt does a great job of unfolding an intricate plot . . . Andy is a smart, witty, relatable lead with a lot of heart, and he and his cohorts are a pleasure to spend time with. This is a treat for mystery readers and dog lovers.” – Publishers Weekly
“Growing weary of the detective hero with a wrecked marriage, a botched career, and a drinking problem? Try Rosenfelt’s series hero, Andy Carpenter, who is probably as close to Lord Peter Wimsey as the modern American crime genre can get.” — Booklist
“I love the Andy Carpenter Mystery novels. They’re so easy to read . . . They have really fun characters. And they have dogs. All this makes these books so much fun to read each time . . . If you’ve never read one of these Andy Carpenter books jump right in. Each novel reads like a stand-alone book and you get enough back information to understand who is who and what’s going on.”— Red Carpet Crash
"Bark of Night is a terrific read for any mystery lover who enjoy twists, turns, and surprises on every page!" —Suspense Magazine
“Look no further for a wagalicious summer read.” — Dogster Magazine
SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
Listening to Grover Gardner narrating a David Rosenfelt novel is like sliding into favorite slippers at the end of a long day: One feels the joyful gratification of a perfect fit. This 19th installment in the Andy Carpenter whodunit series will not disappoint fans. Gardner injects the famous defense lawyer with chipper determination and plenty of self-deprecating humor as he is dragged into another case alongside his golden retriever sidekick, Tara. An apparently healthy French bulldog is dropped at Tara’s vet with instructions for euthanasia, and Andy, incensed, pursues fishy details. The culprit’s story is told in his own chapters, capably rendered by Gardner in a more masculine but still natural tone. Gardner might just be a dog-loving audiophile’s second-best friend. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-05-12
A dog finds yet another way to drag Paterson lawyer Andy Carpenter into his 19th recorded murder case, this one with even more than 19 fatalities.
Andy's vet, Dr. Dan Dowling, is distressed because somebody's dropped off a French bulldog in perfectly good health and paid to have him euthanized even though a chip implanted in the dog indicates that he belongs to someone else. Naturally, Andy overrules the order, takes the dog home, and thinks no more about it—until he realizes that documentary filmmaker James Haley, who's just been shot to death, was the real owner of the bulldog, whose name is Truman, and that the man who ordered Truman's death was almost certainly Haley's killer. It's too late for the police to arrest George Adams, the mob enforcer Dowling's receptionist recognizes as the man who wanted Truman euthanized, because he's already dead, executed along with his wife in suburban Philadelphia. The Paterson police, knowing no better, meanwhile arrest Joey Gamble for Haley's murder because he visited Haley that night, his prints are all over Haley's place, and they find the murder weapon in his home. So despite Andy's well-established resistance to the practice of law (Deck the Hounds, 2018, etc.), he agrees to defend Joey. The case looks tough because the evidence, though it's all circumstantial, is impressive. So Andy's only chance is to tie Haley's murder to the shooting of Christopher Tolbert, a homeless man in nearby Clifton, and to a total of 18—no, make that 26—oddly similar deaths across the country in what turns out to be a startlingly widespread criminal conspiracy. One of the best hooks ever by an author who specializes in them, along with a constant stream of appealingly throwaway wisecracks and one of Rosenfelt's most successful portrayals of the professional criminals whom he often loves not wisely but too well.
Even dog haters should lap it up.
