Flop dead gorgeous

Rosenfelt's witty, well-paced 27th courtroom cozy starring Paterson, N.J., trial lawyer Andy Carpenter (after 2022's Santa's Little Yelpers) sees Carpenter failing, once again, to settle into a blissful retirement. When Hollywood star Jenny Nichols returns to Paterson during a break on a film she's shooting in New York City, she gets in touch with Andy, who for years has proudly touted the fact that the two used to date when they were in high school. To prove as much to doubting friends, he organizes a dinner party in Jenny's honor. During the dinner, Jenny's costar Ryan barges in and demands that Jenny, who has recently broken off their affair, leave with him. Andy's wife, a former Paterson cop, twists the handsome actor's arm to subdue him. The next morning, Andy gets a desperate call from Jenny: she has found Ryan dead in the kitchen of the house where she's staying, and the police are ready to charge her with his murder. A well-constructed plot and vivid characters--both human and canine, as Rosenfelt dedicates plenty of space to Jenny's miniature French poodle, Mamie--make this a treat for fans. Rarely does a series this long-running still feel so fresh. (July)

Paterson, New Jersey, attorney Andy Carpenter ventures all the way to neighboring Bergen County to defend a client dear to his heart. Back in high school, Andy briefly dated Jenny Nichols, something he repeatedly tells everyone who'll listen now that she's become a major movie star. Since Jenny's on the East Coast shooting a film with Ryan Griffin, Andy and his wife, private eye Laurie Collins, throw her a dinner party that's crashed by Griffin, who insists that she'd made dinner plans with him. Andy's muscular pal Marcus Clark persuades Griffin and the two goons he's brought to leave quietly, but that only sets the stage for the discovery of Griffin's body a few hours later. When the county prosecutor issues a warrant for Jenny's arrest, Andy swings into action with all the motivation in the world. Working feverishly, he links Griffin to Yaroslav Miranov, a Russian crime lord who's laundering huge amounts of money and whose hired assassin, Sergey Bondar, has already left a bloody trail in his wake. If only any of those parties had been staying at Jenny's mother's house in Englewood Cliffs that fatal night; if only any of them could be linked to the cake knife that stabbed Griffin in the back in that house's kitchen; and if only the jury weren't prevented by a sequestration order from hearing about most of these developments. Series fans familiar with the trajectory from small-scale murder to predictable large-scale international intrigue will await the inevitable final twist with bated breath. This time, though, that twist is as unsurprising as the rest of the mystery. Perhaps the weakest entry in a strong and entertaining series. Skip this one and wait a few months. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.