Summary
Andy Carpenter is a defense lawyer retrying an old case at the urging of his father. Some issues have come to light that get the original trial thrown out.
What’s odd is that Andy’s dad was the District Attorney who prosecuted the original case. Andy’s not sure why his dad wanted him to re-try it. And now that his dad has died, he’s not available to ask.
Adding to the “odd” factor is a photo of four young men that Andy finds hidden at his father’s house. Andy recognizes his father and one other man in the photo – a man connected to his retrial.
Why did Andy’s father hide this innocuous-looking picture? Does it have anything to do with the unexpected millions Andy inherited? Is it a coincidence that one of the men in the photo is part of Andy’s case?
Whatever’s going on, Andy and his team will have to work fast to figure it out. Someone wants Andy to back off – either from the case or with his questions about the photo – and their threats start escalating.
Review
After reading five books from the end of this series, I decided to start at the beginning with book one and see how everything started.
Since this is the start of the series, the ensemble I love from the latter books isn’t in place yet. This changed the tone of the book for me. While there’s still a lot of great dry humor, the fun interplay between characters wasn’t quite there in this book.
The mystery is great. The evidence against Andy’s client is tremendous. There’s a reason he was found guilty the first time. Andy himself spends a lot of the story feeling like he might not pull this off. The pieces twist together to a satisfying conclusion.
My rating for this is lower than what I have given to the others in this series. And that’s entirely due to the comparison to Rosenfelt’s later work. Without the full ensemble, I just didn’t enjoy this one as much as I have the rest of the series. The books just get better and better!
I’m glad I went back to book one to see how it all began. By now, I have worked through the entire series to see how the team comes together to become the ensemble I love. Every book in this series is a terrific, intricate mystery. New books in this series are must reads for me! I highly recommend this entire series.