Hounded (Andy Carpenter)
Andy Carpenter, the frivolous-but-not-really lawyer who’s fronted a dozen of Rosenfelt’s agreeable novels, is asked to defend a cop accused of murdering a favored informant. The case seems airtight, but Andy and the reader know that’s nonsense. Preparing the defense leads into the befuddling world of cell-phone satellites and GPS devices and then . . . dead end. Suddenly we’re watching a chemist who has developed a pill that will let terminally ill animals die painlessly. But it’s people who are dying. Is it all connected? You bet. Rosenfelt has assembled a huge cast to prove it, and that’s the problem. Willy, Sam, Hike, Marcus, Pete, Laurie, Richard, Sharon, and squads of others move in and out of the narrative, with no reidentification, causing the reader to spend too much time keeping track of the players. When Andy is saved from death by a friend who appears out of nowhere, we shouldn’t be wondering, “Now, who is he?” Still, the solution to the mystery, when it comes, is stunning, and Andy is as charming as always. Not the best in the series, but good enough to keep fans engaged. --Don Crinklaw