Andy Carpenter has a big problem. He would like nothing more than to enjoy his time spending his large inheritance by playing with his dogs Tara and Sebastian and running the dog rescue group he co-founded and named The Tara Foundation. So what is the problem? Andy also happens to be an outstanding criminal defense attorney, and his love of dogs seems to keep getting him roped into taking on new cases that are related in some way to dogs. This time, in Muzzled by David Rosenfelt, Andy gets a call from Beth, a woman who works with the Tara Foundation, and she has strange news. She has been trying to find the owner of a dog in the shelter, and the trail leads her to a man who claims to be that person. The problem is that the man is supposed to be dead, killed in a boat explosion. Once the police learn about the survival of Alex Vogel, they arrest him for murdering his two companions on the boat.
Andy has had no interest in taking on another case, but he is influenced by the fact that Vogel’s one phone call after getting arrested was to Beth to make sure his dog is taken care of. So Andy takes on yet another impossible case. Defending Vogel sends Andy and his investigative team into the worlds of high finance, pharmaceutical politics, and even the mob. It begins to look like Andy may have finally found himself a case that he can’t solve.
As with all the Andy Carpenter books I’ve listened to, I thoroughly enjoyed Muzzled. I like the way Rosenfelt works dogs in to his books, and it’s sweet to learn that he himself has a dog rescue group named the Tara Foundation! The lawyer scenes in this series are always fun, so it would have been fun to see more of the courtroom. However, this book spends a significant amount of time with the investigation and some further time with a separate group of people who seem to be up to something nefarious but which we don’t connect to the case until the end.
I think my favorite part of the Andy Carpenter books is the way he gives his narration. If Archie Goodwin (of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books) were reincarnated as a dog- loving lawyer, it would be as Andy Carpenter. They have very similar senses of humor and throw out regular quips. The comments never cease to make me laugh.
The audiobook of Muzzled is narrated by Grover Gardner, who does a fantastic job. He embodies Andy well and makes his witticisms all the more enjoyable. Gardner keeps the audiobook moving pleasurably and makes it very effective.
I had a good time listening to Muzzled and appreciated this good book. I did find this book to be much darker than the previous books in the series, and I would have preferred to have it be lighter. However, this book was still a great listen. I give the book five stars.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free for review purposes, but that had no effect on the content of my review.
This book was just released today. To purchase this book for yourself on Amazon, you can purchase the Kindle version, the Audible version, the hard cover version, or the audio CD version.
