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| I wake up at six-thirty, because I hear noise in the house. As I get up, I remember about Ricky, and that fact that he's in the room next door. Somehow I had forgotten all about it during my sleep, but it comes flooding back to me. Laurie is not in bed; she must have gotten up without my realizing it. That's fairly unusual; typically I get up first, bring us both coffee, and then take Tara for a walk. I've got a feeling we're about to enter a period in which nothing is typical ~~~. |
Everybody probably knows that if this series included cat characters, I would have already known about it... So when Amazon Vine offered this novel, I quickly took it to see what was up with the canine cops...LOL
Actually, in this novel, they weren't main characters and I don't know whether that is the case for the entire series. Still, I enjoyed meeting the two animal friends that gave support to the human characters! Andy Carpenter is the main character of the series. He's a lawyer that is certainly faced with an unknown experience in Hounded, which is coming in July. In fact, he's confronted with a case that he would have preferred never having to deal with as well. The two events makes this a story that I highly recommend. It easily stands alone, and there is not much tying to previous books, other than a couple of characters...
The story begins when a friend and officer, Pete Stanton, calls him to come quickly--and to bring his girlfriend, Laurie Collins. They have been called to a crime scene!
Actually, it's not the normal reason for going to a crime scene...and when they leave, there is a young boy and a dog with them...
Actually, in this novel, they weren't main characters and I don't know whether that is the case for the entire series. Still, I enjoyed meeting the two animal friends that gave support to the human characters! Andy Carpenter is the main character of the series. He's a lawyer that is certainly faced with an unknown experience in Hounded, which is coming in July. In fact, he's confronted with a case that he would have preferred never having to deal with as well. The two events makes this a story that I highly recommend. It easily stands alone, and there is not much tying to previous books, other than a couple of characters...
The story begins when a friend and officer, Pete Stanton, calls him to come quickly--and to bring his girlfriend, Laurie Collins. They have been called to a crime scene!
Actually, it's not the normal reason for going to a crime scene...and when they leave, there is a young boy and a dog with them...
Hounded
By David Rosenfelt
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| "Is anyone trying to find his stepmother?" |
I follow the sounds, which now seem to be muffled laughter, to the den and look in. Tara and Sebastian are on the couch, and I can make out a human hand ande bare foot under them. They are smothering Ricky, and based on the sound, he is loving it.
Where's Ricky?" Laurie asks, to no one in particular. Then, when she sees me walk in, she smoothly switches that to, "Andy, where's Ricky?"
"I don't know," I say. "Maybe we should ask Tara or Sebastian."
Laurie asks them the question, but they don't seem inclined to respond. Finally, Ricky's head peers out from under them.
"There he is!" Laurie yells in mock surprise...
Pete Stanton, the police office who had originally called Andy has now officially been handed the murder case of Ricky's father. Andy had noticed that Ricky called Pete "uncle" and immediately started wondering what kind of relationship he had with the family
Unbelievably, the table turns and Pete is being considered a "person of interest" and is soon arrested... Not knowing who is trying to set him up, Pete, now, must also seek help from Andy on behalf of himself... Andy has no problem saying yes, even knowing that Pete will not have the money to pay him anything... And, later, when Andy does convince the court that he should be allowed to obtain bail, it is Andy who puts up the amount due...
Then he brings in his own motley crew and begins the investigation with checking on who, from Pete's case files, would be looking for payback...then goes on from there, with even Pete who has been confined to his home with a ankle lock, working as much as he can to help build his defense case...
Because the Prosecutor's case is based on much forensics evidence that has been collected and then a search of his home turned up about $100,000 street value in drugs!
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| The discovery information tells us some of what we're up against. But it also says something far more revealing. Pete isn't just an innocent man wrongly accused. He is an innocent man wrongly accused because someone specifically set it up that way. If Pete is not guilty of the murder, which is something I am positive about, then he's been set up to take the fall. The gloves hidden in his car make that an absolute fact: they had to have been planted there, with the gunpowder residue on them... On the one hand, this is very bad news, in that it means we're up against a smart, determined enemy, in addition to the prosecution. But it also presents an opportunity, in that the conspirators must have a reason for doing what they're doing to Pete. So we can search for them, and we can also search for that reason. If we achieve either goal, we win. ~~~
What is most frustrating for Andy is that every time he gets a handle on somebody that can help his case, they die. Now somebody having a heart attack is normal but when it starts to be that everybody associated with one criminal case are having heart attacks...there's probably something afoot, right?! And when you add the amounts of money that have already been spent to convict the individual who has been set up, then you know that something major and somebody very important is behind it all!
This is a case where something developed for the good of man has been turned into a criminal tool--nothing new, right? But it does create an intense, detailed case that requires that every possible corner be turned before things begin to make sense...
While that is happening, I enjoyed the humor of Andy's crew as they worked together, as well, as his internal thoughts as he considered how to deal with a young boy who is now living in his home as part of a family that has doubled quickly...Andy in court is also a cool defender of the law. He's quick to pull out ideas from what is being said, so that he can cast doubt on behalf of his client. I loved his work during Pete's trial...
Actually, I loved the whole book--its characters, the story, and the intensive work from a defense lawyer who has the toughest case possible--one where he can't win!
Legal thriller fans--Don't miss this one! Dog fans, kinda cute, though the dogs are not involved as they could have been...like taking them on investigations...LOL In any event, I think this one is definitely worth your time! Please check it out! Recommended by both Tara and Sebastian!
And certainly not going to tell you how it ends...but I will share
that Sebastian is verrrrry happy I (although I'm not soo sure about Tara)!
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I am a novelist with 27 dogs. I have gotten to this dubious position with absolutely no planning, and at no stage in my life could I have predicted it. But here I am.
My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, "Ozzie and Harriet's" clan seemed bizarre.
I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every "Rambo", "The Natural" and "Rocky", there are countless disasters.
I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities.
A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It's safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal.
About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It's total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group. http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidr
My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, "Ozzie and Harriet's" clan seemed bizarre.
I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every "Rambo", "The Natural" and "Rocky", there are countless disasters.
I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities.
A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It's safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal.
About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It's total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group. http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidr
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