Play Dead
Andy Carpenter #6
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

After getting Yogi, a golden retriever, off death row, defense attorney Andy Carpenter sets out to prove the innocence of Yogi’s owner, Richard Evans, who has been convicted of murder. Since Richard supposedly killed Yogi at the same time as the human victim, Yogi’s very existence puts casts uncertainty on Richard’s guilt, and Andy is just the person to pursue that thread.

At one point, I thought the titles of these books were just random references to murder and/or dogs, and maybe some of them are. I’m starting to see connections between the title and the story in some of the books, though, which in this case led me to make some assumptions that the characters had less reason to make. Fortunately, it doesn’t bother me to correctly guess what’s going on in a book in this series, because the journey is still enjoyable, largely due to Andy’s interactions with both friend and foe alike. The series may be a bit formulaic, but this series is one of those cases when it’s done right. That’s partly due to Rosenfelt’s writing and partly due to the way he often circumvents the formula in some way, big or small. This time, it’s big.

I highly recommend this book for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, and though there are some over-arcing storylines throughout the series, you don’t really need to start at the beginning (though I’d still recommend it). Grover Gardner is the definitive voice of Andy Carpenter, bringing Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life, so if you’re an audiobook listener, I’d suggest trying that out for this series. 

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