The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by David Rosenfelt, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Defense attorney Andy Carpenter doesn’t need an income so he can pick and choose his cases. And even though he would like to retire, he does continue to be become involved with individuals who need his help, especially those concerning dogs. Such is the case of Martha Boyer, known by her friends as “Pup”, a sixty-seven-year-old cantankerous woman whose husband had been killed in a drive-by shooting just eighteen months ago. A long-time friend of Andy, she rescues, takes in and raises stray puppies too young to be placed in pet shelters. She nurtures the puppies brought to her until they are ready to be taken to in The Tara Foundation, a pet shelter founded by Andy and his friend Willie to care for animals, mostly dogs, until they are adopted. Just a few weeks prior to Christmas, Martha’s own dog, Puddles, gave birth to twelve puppies. Martha’s neighbor, Randy Hennessey, went to the zoning board and complained that she was breaking the law by having more pets in one house than was allotted. She was taken to court and defended by Andy who won the case for her. Martha made no secret that this infuriated her and threatened loud and clear in the courtroom that she would “cut Hennessey’s heart out and ram it down his throat”. Two days later Hennessey was found dead, shot to death. Not only did Martha find the body, the police found the gun that killed him in Martha’s basement. Back into the courtroom Andy went to defend Martha, this time for murder, in The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, the fifteenth mystery in this series by David Rosenfelt.

What a delightful twist on a holiday story. The characters are fully realized, from the recurring cast of Andy, his wife Laurie and their seven-year-old adopted son Ricky (and their two dogs Tara and Sebastian) to Andy’s legal team of Laurie, a former police officer, Hike, his investigator, Marcus, his associate, and Sam, his accountant and sometime computer hacker. The mystery is nicely layered, and slowly comes to light as the story develops. As with the other books in this series, there is nothing to dislike about this one…unless the reader does not like family, dogs, humor or a well-crafted mystery.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Twelve Dogs of Christmas.

Acknowledgment: Minotaur Books provided a copy of The Twelve Dogs of Christmas for this review.

Outfoxed
Minotaur Books (Hardcover), July 2016
ISBN-13: 9781250055347; ISBN-10: 1250055342

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt