organized-crime, dogs, animal-rescue, animal-shelter, false-identities, false-information, family, family-business, family-dynamics, framed, friendship, situational-humor, verbal-humor, snark-fest, fast-pace, thriller, murder, murder-investigation, laugh-out-loud, law-enforcement, lawyers, teamwork, courtroom-drama*****

This series can easily be read out of order or just drop in anywhere and have a good read while laughing your sox off! This is NOT an unbiased review! I love the Andy Carpenter and K-Team books! The stories are imaginative, somewhat plausible, totally engaging, and off-set reality.
Andy Carpenter is a wise-mouthed lawyer who can afford to take semi-retirement by only representing innocent clients while supporting an animal shelter. Add in that his wife is no longer law enforcement but works as his private investigator and more and you have the baseline for these convoluted mysteries. There are many other people who help Andy find out what the truth really is and make it courtroom admissible (The K-Team).
This time the client is a guy on parole who works at the Tara Foundation rescue/shelter who states he was innocent then and is innocent of the charge laid on him now. Let the sleuthing begin! The mysteries are always intriguing, and I cackled my way through the whole thing (again)!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!
I will definitely get the audio when it comes out.

This is book #26 in the Andy Carpenter series. That might make it sound like you have to read 25 other books before this one to fully understand the characters, but that isn’t the case at all. You can start with this copy because it works well as a standalone. I’ve read a few of the books in this series, and enjoyed them, but I have not read all 26.

While I consider myself to be more of a cat person than a dog person, I love this series! Dogs are always a vital part of these books because Andy truly loves them and works with other people to find homes for those that need one. He also owns 3 dogs of his own.

These books are full of intriguing characters and as the story unfolds, the author does an amazing job of characterization! He also does an amazing job of telling a good story with a few red herrings thrown in for good measure. I like how there is always a court case at some point in the book, that Andy still doesn't have all the loose ends tied up when the case starts, but by the end of the book, he's uncovered all the answers.

There aren't a lot of 5 star books out there, but this one definitely deserves it.

Andy Carpenter and the gang are used to fostering dogs and finding them great homes. With the holidays looming and eight puppies, that’s a lot to handle, even for this gang. However Myers, one of the Tara foundation employees, agrees to foster the pup, allowing Andy a big sigh of relief.

Andy knows Myers had a conviction in his past, but he knows he’s a good guy. When Myers finds out that a witness lied on the stand, causing him to be falsely convicted, he asks for Andy’s legal help. With Andy’s belief in Myers’ innocence, placing him on the nice list, he takes him on and it seems Myers lands on the naughty list when said witness is found dead and Myer’s is arrested for the murder. Can the gang pull of a Christmas miracle, or will there be coal in their stockings this year?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this series! With this being the 26th book in the series, so do many others. What I love most, besides the dogs, is the snark and humor in this series. I’m a Jersey girl and each book brings me back home and gives mea taste of the snark I grew up on. YOU WILL NOT regret reading this series and good news is, you don’t have to start with book one. Each book reads fine as a stand alone and that is exactly how I got started. I have since read them all, and each one is better then the last!

The best thing about the author's über-long-running Andy Carpenter series is defense attorney Andy's first-person narration of his convoluted cases, tempered with just the right amount of his signature wisecracks and irreverent asides. I never tire of this series, as the author has somehow kept the quality high in each of the 26 books.

This time around, Andy says he's decided to stop saying he's retiring because, although he doesn't need the money, he can't help getting involved when it's a friend's request or a case he cares about. Former attorney Chris is a standout volunteer at Andy's golden retriever rescue foundation. He spent a year in prison doing time for manslaughter and was disbarred, and now he's learned that the "eyewitness" whose testimony put him behind bars lied in exchange for a payoff. Chris is determined to see his conviction overturned, but then the eyewitness is murdered, and guess who is the prime suspect? The case against Chris seems overwhelming, but Andy and his team doggedly uncover evidence from three of the cases handled by Chris's former law firm that might be connected to his own case.

Besides Andy, I always get a kick out of assorted members of his legal team, especially: Sam the hacker, who would like to see more real action; bodyguard and PI Marcus, who looks like a linebacker but whose enemies always underestimate him; Andy's wife Laurie, another PI, who is the real "muscle" in the Carpenter family; and administrator Edna, who's affronted at the suggestion she might have to actually work. The dogs--Andy has three--are always a wonderful diversion, although often not really part of the plot. The "yelpers" referred to in the title are a new litter of puppies being fostered by Chris during the Christmas holidays (until he lands in jail). And the book covers are always fantastic. But I particularly admire the way Rosenfelt puts together an exciting, credible mystery, and the courtroom scenes are very satisfying. Please keep 'em coming!

My thanks to NetGalley and St, Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

I came for the dogs but stayed for the humor. Seriously, how can anyone possibly ignore the cover of this one with those adorable puppies. Yet, while the dogs of the tale are certainly a huge draw, David Rosenfelt always weaves a story full of not just dogs and humor but deep dives into organized crime, corruption, and how investigations might be done. Heck, he even makes the legal process understandable. And, Andy Carpenter never loses his self-deprecating humor and smart-ass approach.

I must also admit, I am a biased witness, er, reviewer. As soon as this book was approved for me to review, I immediately set aside what I was then reading and dived into the world of wannabe-retired lawyer Andy, who does some of his best thinking while out walking his dogs. Sebastian never fails to draw a grin from me, btw, for his lack of enthusiasm for said walks. Tara, of course, is the world's best dog. Just ask Andy. He may also have the best investigative team ever, too, and Sam, hacker extraordinary, gets out of the office to spend some time checking out a site in person for a change. True, at that point Andy figures it's a relatively safe bet that Sam won't encounter any problems on this seemingly barely connected town visit. Oh, but even Andy can be wrong sometimes. Sam's encounter with some shady characters sets the stage for the rest of the story, one that ultimately involves diamonds and organized crime. There's something in there about a trip to Disney, too, but Andy assures us he won't be wearing mouse ears.

If the above confuses me, don't despair. I've long since learned to just sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride that is an Andy Carpenter story. Even though I could have used a few more doses of Marcus, Laurie, as always, has Andy's back. There's even a new lawyer to oppose Andy this go-round and he sounds like a promising foe, albeit one we may wind up liking.

Bottom line, excellent pacing which moves right along, main characters you'll like, lovely dogs with personality, worthy opponents, and.....oh, almost gave away a key element of the plot. You'll have to read it to find out what the big hole in the ground is and why people keep winding up dead. Thanks #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for letting me spend some time with Andy, Laurie, Ricky, Tara, Corey, and, oh, yes, Marcus, not to mention some adorable Golden Retriever puppies. Readers will love the ending.

David Rosenfelt writes a satisfying book and this series is always fun for me to read.
Andy Carpenter, lawyer who is never quite retired, is very active in a dog rescue group. He hires a new volunteer who has a criminal past. The volunteer locates a witness who can exonerate him but he ends up dead. Of course he is charged with the murder.
Andy gets involved to help the volunteer and it is off and running.

The tile refers to a batch of puppies.
Rosenfelt writes characters that you genuinely care about and root for. The involvement in dog rescue and finding just the right person for a dog brings in a real compassion. There is always some humor and the books do not rely solely on the mystery.

Save the book for the Christmas season. You won't be sorry

Thanks to netgalley for the arc

This is #26 in the Andy Carpenter crime/legal procedural series that always manages to get me laughing out loud in spite of brutal and complex crimes.

Andy thinks of himself as a retired lawyer, but when a case comes along that somehow involves a dog, he can’t resist getting involved, as much as he pretends he doesn’t want to. In this instance, Andy is asked to help Chris Myers, an employee at Andy’s Tara Foundation for dog rescue. Chris is a former attorney who served a two-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Chris wants to be exonerated and Andy agrees to help him. After all, Chris has just agreed to foster a new litter of eight puppies, or “Santa’s Little Yelpers,” in honor of the Christmas season.

Chris claims he did not commit the crime for which he served time, and indeed, as the series progresses, Andy seems to be specializing in defending people who had been framed. Chris informed Andy that the key witness against him two years before told Chris he was paid to lie, and he is willing to recant as long as it can be kept confidential.

Alas, the witness, Charlie Burgess, abruptly cancelled his scheduled recanting, and Chris went to see him to find out why and see if he could convince him otherwise. While Chris was at Charlie’s house, however, Charlie was shot in the head with a bullet that came from outside. Chris, scared and worried he would be blamed at the least, or killed also at worst, ran out of the house. He was sighted by neighbors, and before Andy could even get started on Chris’s exoneration for his old crime, he was accused of this new murder.

Clearly something deeper and more sinister is going on, and Andy and his crew are determined to find out what. They suspect it all has something to do with Chris’s former clients, and set out to investigate some of the dodgier cases Chris handled before his conviction.

As the investigation proceeds, Andy uncovers a convoluted plot of corruption and of course also has his own life threatened. As usual, he is saved by his much braver wife Laurie and Laurie’s muscle, the always amusing, albeit usually taciturn and unintelligible Marcus. But can Andy save Chris? It’s up to the jury, and the outcome is unclear until the very end.

Evaluation: I look forward to new entries in this series, which, by the way, you don’t really need to read in the order they were written. Andy’s sarcasm and wit are unfailingly entertaining, as are his relationships with the rest of his team. I also appreciate the way he presents legal principles and complicated crimes in a way even I can follow. For a quick, diverting read that challenges you at the same time, you can’t go wrong with David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series.

This is another book in David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter series. I have read each book and have loved all of them. These are great mysteries and I love the dogs. There is also a lot of humor in these books