Detective Fiction, Thrillers

Dead Center (Andy Carpenter Series #5)

Name: Dead Center (Andy Carpenter Series #5)
Author: David Rosenfelt
ISBN: 9780446614511

by David Rosenfelt

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Overview

Edgar( Award finalist and author of "Bury the Lead," a "Today" show Book Club pick, returns with a tale of murder and deadly secrets in an ultra-secretive religious community.

Synopsis

2007 Audie® Award Finalist - Mystery

If there aren't any real-life lawyers as entertaining, as witty and as willing to tilt at windmills as Andy Carpenter, Edgar-finalist Rosenfelt's engaging series hero, then there should be. Carpenter, the Paterson, N.J., lawyer, whose wealth allows him to work as seldom as he chooses, is recovering from the loss of the love of his life, Laurie Collins, who has moved home to Findlay, Wis., to become the acting chief of police. When Laurie calls Andy for help after arresting 21-year-old Jeremy Davidson for murders that she thinks he didn't commit, Andy can't resist heading off to Findlay with his faithful dog, Tara. There's damning evidence against Jeremy, accused of killing two young women, one of whom he was romantically involved with. Andy is forced to pry into the closed society of Center City, home of the victims and a peculiar religious sect called the Centurions.

Publishers Weekly

Even if Rosenfelt's novels about multimillionaire New Jersey defense attorney Andy Carpenter didn't hit all the right mystery novel notes, the intimacy of their hero's breezy, subjective, present-tense narration would make them ideal subjects for audio adaptation. Adding to the ear appeal of book five in the series is reader Gardner, an inspired match for the amusingly self-deprecating, sarcastic, animal-loving, freewheeling, wisecracking, wily lawyer. The inventive story finds Carpenter being lured by a recently lost love to the snow- and sausage-filled wilds of Wisconsin. There, accompanied by his faithful golden retriever, Tara, he reluctantly agrees to defend a 21-year-old local against overwhelming evidence that he savagely murdered two young women from a nearby hamlet inhabited exclusively by members of a religious cult. Using a voice and sensibility reminiscent of Nathan Lane (complete with verbal eye-rolls), Gardner smartly unfolds Rosenfelt's yarn, in which Carpenter is at his hilarious best-a Jersey boy out of his element in the frosty Midwest, motor-mouthing about having to put up with bone-chilling cold, unfamiliar food, a half-rekindled romance, an impossible defense and a possibly homicidal cult. Simultaneous release with the Mysterious Press hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 20). (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, David Rosenfelt

DAVID ROSENFELT was the marketing president for Tri-Star Pictures before becoming a writer of novels and screenplays. His debut novel, OPEN AND SHUT, won Edgar and Shamus award nominations. FIRST DEGREE, his second novel, was a Publishers Weekly selection for one of the top mysteries of the year, and BURY THE LEAD was chosen as a Today Show Book Club pick.

Reviews

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

New Jersey-based defense attorney Andy Carpenter is having a hard time forgetting his former lover Laurie Collins. Four months earlier, Laurie returned to her hometown of Findley, WI, where she has become the acting chief of police. Now, making matters worse (or better, perhaps), Laurie calls asking for his help with a murder case. She has arrested a young man for the stabbing deaths of two girls but believes he may be innocent. The victims were both from nearby Center City, a secretive community controlled by a bizarre cult. As Andy prepares to defend the accused by trying to find the real killer, one of his assistants is murdered. And then, a material witness, the ex-boyfriend of one of the victims, is found hanged. In his fifth Andy Carpenter novel, Rosenfelt (Sudden Death) tells a fast-paced story that's hard to put down, a mystery spiced with interesting characters and brightened by the flames of a rekindled love affair. Recommended for all mystery collections.-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Only true love, not a murder case, could lure attorney Andy Carpenter (Sudden Death, 2005, etc.) from his beloved Paterson, N.J., to the frozen north. Acting Chief Laurie Collins, who fled Paterson for her childhood home of Findlay, Wisc., is holding Jeremy Davidson for killing of two coeds. The official story is that Jeremy stabbed Elizabeth Barlow because she broke up with him, and her friend Sheryl Hendricks because she happened to be on the scene. But even Laurie doesn't believe the official story, and she wants her ex-lover to drop everything and defend him. The case is a mess. No sooner does Andy, second-chaired by one-legged local counselor Calvin Marshall, get in a few good licks at District Attorney Lester Chapman than the finger points toward a neighboring religious community called Center City, followed by a sudden tsunami of suspicion cast on Elizabeth's ex-boyfriend, Eddie Carson, and Eddie's convenient suicide. Or is it murder? Either way, Jeremy's soon off the hook, and although Andy vows to stay local till the bitter end, the febrile suspicions of Eddie, the Centurions of Center City and a drug-smuggling operation don't generate much mystery or suspense. Andy and Laurie eventually come to an accord about their relationship, which upstages a case starved for suspects, clues and twists. This is the most disappointing of ebullient Andy's five cases to date.