Rescued

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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At an early age, Andy Carpenter discovered that he couldn't hit a curve-ball and therefore had to give up on his dreams of playing in the majors and fall back to following in his father's footsteps and becoming a lawyer. His father, a lifelong prosecuting attorney, probably wished for something else, but for the many people that he's defended in court, they wouldn't have it another way.

This is the seventeenth novel in this series – I've talked here about nine of the previous sixteen. There's part of me wondering just what I could possibly have to say about this one that I haven't said at least once before.

Andy Carpenter is called to a nearby rest area – a truck containing sixty-one dogs was discovered with the driver shot. Andy and Willie were called out to help the police retrieve the dogs and care for them. The police are really not happy to see him there – Andy Carpenter at a crime scene? Not a welcome sight. But then he's called away, there's a prospective new client waiting for him at home.

Not that surprisingly, the potential client was also at that rest area earlier in the day. He actually tells Andy that he shot the driver – in self-defense, mind you. Sure, there's a history between the two – Kramer (the client) had assaulted the victim and threatened to kill him, in fact. But that was years ago, and he had no current reason to. He just needs some help with the inevitable arrest. Andy believes him – he has to. Kramer is Laurie's ex and she vouches for him – so much so that Andy pretty much has to take the case for her sake.

Honestly, Andy really isn't that interested in helping tall, hunky and dangerous Kramer – ex-Military, ex-police, ex-licensed investigator. But it's not long before he starts to believe that there's something more afoot. And what was the deal with all the dogs?

All the regulars are along for this ride – Pete Stanton brings the law and order, we get a little more about the fun side of Hike that was introduced in the last book, Sam and his hacking crew dig up plenty of information, Marcus is his typical imposing self, Tara is as loyal as ever – and Andy gets a lot of courtroom time in. There's a new prosecuting attorney for him to face off against – I liked her, and would like to see her against Andy again.

I don't think it's much of a spoiler here, because it's pretty much the default in this series, but there's a conspiracy behind the murder and they men behind it have decided to frame Kramer. This is one of the better – or at least one of the more grounded – conspiracies featured in these books. Up to a point, some of it was pretty hard to swallow – it just went a little over the top for my taste (but many of them do in this series). Also, this one features the best code names this side of Reservoir Dogs. Still, it was one of the more clever solutions that we've been treated to lately.

A thought about the series as a whole at this point: I would appreciate it if Rosenfelt would shake things up a little bit – I'm not talking about killing Hike or splitting up with Laurie or anything – just dial down the super-criminals a bit, maybe spend some more time with the client again. But there's little reason for him to do that – the series moves like clockwork and is reliably entertaining. I only say this because I'm a fan – Rosenfelt is in danger of becoming a parody of himself (at worst) or just putting out cookie-cutter books (at best), I don't want Andy Carpenter to become a Stephanie Plum.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book – because I did. Andy, Sam, Pete, Vince, Laurie, Tara and the rest are old friends that I enjoy getting together with every few months. Rosenfelt's latest demonstrates what's been true for years – this series is at the point where you can reliably count on each book for an entertaining read, a puzzling mystery, some good comic moments, a nice dog or two and maybe even a tug on the heart strings. They're still charming enough to win over a new reader (and any of the books serve just fine as entry points) as well as satisfying the long-term reader. Rescued delivered just what I expected and left me satisfied – satisfied and ready to read number 18.


Disclaimer: I received this eARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post – thanks to both for this, it was a real pleasure.