Publishers Weekly
In Rosenfelt's breezy crime confection, his third to feature Andy Carpenter (after 2003's First Degree), a serial killer who cuts off his victims' hands has been terrorizing the dog-loving lawyer's northern New Jersey turf. When the cops charge one of the murders to newspaperman Daniel Cummings, who's been receiving messages from the killer taunting the police, Andy and his legal team step up to the defense. The author writes like a guy relentlessly channel surfing, always on the move, never risking boredom. Of police fiber technician Donald Prescott, one of the many characters briefly met, he notes: "if you possess both a desire to be a cop and a self-preservation instinct, it's a good job to have. There is even less chance that Prescott will get shot at than the guy who draws the chalk outlines around bodies." When a Passaic police detective asks Andy what he was doing while his ex-cop girlfriend was beating up a bad guy ("Holding her purse?"), Andy thinks, "He knows nothing; the fact is that Laurie wasn't even carrying a purse that night. It was more of a handbag." The witty asides never stop. The novel may not have a single convincing dramatic moment, but the tricks and turns before the resolution provide a fun rollercoaster ride. Agent, Robin Rue. Mystery Guild Featured Alternate. (June 9) FYI: Open and Shut (2002), the first in the series, was nominated for Edgar, Shamus and Gumshoe awards. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Andy Carpenter, the most famous lawyer in Paterson, N.J., goes to bat for a reporter who's blamed for a brutal series of murders. What's worse than being the mouthpiece for a crazy killer who chooses to tell his story to the world? Daniel Cummings finds out when he chases a call from the informant, who's taunting him with the imminent prospect of strangling and cutting the hands off his fourth victim, and gets knocked out for his trouble. When he comes to, Daniel's talking to the cops, who, dissatisfied with his story about how he came to be on the scene, get a search warrant for his premises and car, where they find the hands of gubernatorial hopeful Linda Padilla, media-star whistle-blower. Daniel's editor at the paper, who has a special interest in him, hires amusing Andy and his lover/investigator Laurie Collins (First Degree, 2003) to get him off, and soon enough, Andy has a promising lead: a jailed client who says he knows who had "the rich one" murdered and insists that the others were only "window dressing." But the snitch gets snuffed; there's no evidence against the button man he's incriminated; and the mob boss Andy hopes to drag into the case indicates in no uncertain terms that he's the one who does the dragging. Several big surprises are still in store, but the biggest have to wait till after a trial that does little more than mark time. Agent: Robin Rue/Writers House
