DEAD MEN DON'T PLAY FETCH

Andy Carpenter, the most reluctant lawyer in Paterson, New Jersey, gets backed into yet another case.

Soon after Jason Maddox notifies the police that he’s found the body of Paul Vincent in an alley behind the rehab center A Day at a Time, they return the favor by arresting him for murder. Plenty of people might well have had reason to stab the billionaire inventor, who’s best described as a highly litigious philanthropist, but none of the others described him as a close friend who’d promised to put him in charge of a chain of animal rescue facilities. More to the point, none of them had his blood on their clothes or left their fingerprints on the murder weapon or had his wallet, containing $2,000, in a jacket pocket. Fortunately, Jason has a Lab mix, Hope, whom Andy is eager to rescue from animal control, so it doesn’t take much more to push him into the counselor’s seat. He quickly links Vincent to Matthew Bender, who was his partner in the startup BioCore Dynamics before Vincent left over an argument, and links Vincent’s stepson, Ethan Davenport, to a crew of lowlifes who supplied him with drugs when they weren’t busy laundering money or forcing their debtors into line. Since there’s not enough evidence to mount an affirmative defense against the state’s case, Andy sticks to offering three alternative suspects: Edward Diablo, the enforcer for Ethan’s imprisoned dealer; Frank Bianchi, a member of the Russo crime family who’s gone independent; and Steven Weston, whose fender bender with Vincent sent him to prison, thirsting for revenge upon his release. So Andy’s courtroom shenanigans are considerably more muted than usual.

The same mixture as before, but maybe a little less so.