Bury the Lead

Bury the Lead

Author: David Rosenfelt

Publisher: Warner Book (2004)

ISBN: 089286782X

pages: 261

Genre: mystery

Subgenre: defense attorney

3 (out of 5) STARS

Annotation: Andy Carpenter's friend, a newspaper owner, asks Andy to represent and protect his star reporter after being arrested as a serial killer.

Summary: Andy Carpenter is a defense attorney who has recently inherited $22 million dollars so he actually no longer needs to work. He has not changed his lifestyle and comes across as your average Joe (or Andy, for that matter.) Vince is a friend of Andy’s and he owns the local newspaper. Vince calls Andy and asks him to defend his star reporter Daniel. Daniel has been receiving phone calls from a serial killer. The killer calls Daniel after every murder and gives him information and details about the murder. Daniel is relishing his time in the spotlight. Unfortunately things back fire and Daniel is soon arrested for the serial killings.

Andy signed onto the job even before Daniel was arrested. So now Andy has a client with several murder charges on his head. Andy and his coworkers have to find a connection between the four female victims and then find a way to prove Daniel’s innocence, if he is, in fact, innocent which appears at this point to be debatable.

I don’t want to give any more of the mystery away but suffice to say it is an interesting read, will keep you guessing and has some nice twists and surprises at the end. So go read the book!

Evaluation: This is book 3 in a series of 8 books about the defense attorney Andy Carpenter. I did not realize this was book 3 when I was reading it. It actually stood alone just fine, but I really prefer to read series in order. So I was a bit disappointed that I had not realized that before I got started. I do think I will go back and read the whole series starting with number one.

The main draw of this book is the sense of humor. It has a dry, understated, occasionally sarcastic wit. Here is one such example: “As soon as I walk in, the woman gives me the eye. This is not quite as promising a situation as it sounds. First of all, I’m in a Laundromat. Also, the woman giving me this particular eye is not exactly a supermodel. To totally close off any romantic possibilities in this encounter, I remain in love with, and totally faithful to, one Laurie Collins. So no matter how this round stranger tries to tempt me, I’m not about to engage in an early evening bout of tawdry Laundromat sex” (pg. 2). The only problem with this type of humor is the reader really needs to be in the mood for it. And unfortunately, I was not in the mood while reading this book. I believe this probably colored my opinion of the book rather negatively.

On the other hand, this book is a great escape book. It is quick and easy to read. The sentence structure is simple and basic allowing for the plot to run the show. I was not able to solve the mystery before the end of the book but I still thought the ending was plausible. A nice, easy mystery read.

More books to read:

The Andy Carpenter series

1-Open and Shut

2-First Degree

3-Bury the Lead

4-Sudden Death

5-Dead Center

6-Play Dead

7-New Tricks

8-Dog Tags