In Hounded, lawyer/sleuth Andy Carpenter finds himself "going to the dogs" once again, but this time the canine in question is accompanied by a four-year-old orphan.
When Andy gets a call from good friend and policeman Pete Stanton asking him to come to an unfamiliar address, he doesn't expect to find a murder scene. Even more unexpected is that Pete asks Andy and his girlfriend, Laurie, to take in the victim's preschool-age son to keep the child out of the foster system, as well as the boy's pet basset hound. The biggest surprise of all comes when Pete is charged with killing the victim, ex-con Danny Diaz.
Andy takes Pete's case, but though everyone who knows Pete believes he's innocent, evidence turns up that the court can't ignore. In the midst of a race-against-time investigation that involves an up-and-coming drug dealer, the Mafia and a pet-pharmaceutical R&D department, Andy and Laurie find themselves falling in love with the boy and contemplating adopting him permanently. But as more bodies pile up and Andy gets closer to the truth, the possibility of fatherhood may have to take a back seat to staying alive.
Filled with the quirky humor and screenplay-fast plotting that have made the series popular, this volume in the Andy Carpenter series is perfect for new readers as well as fans of the series. Easily jumping from a crossword-puzzle tournament to a courtroom, Rosenfelt (Unleashed) knows how to balance thrills, laughs and heart. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads