SUDDEN DEATH

A high-profile Giants running back accused of killing a wide receiver for the Jets.

When the police come to the door, most people don’t hold them off for three hours with a loaded gun, but then most people haven’t just found a corpse in the closet. At least that’s the explanation football player Kenny Schilling gives Andy Carptenter (Bury the Lead, 2004, etc.) for his imprudent reaction to the cops who came asking about the missing Troy Preston. Paterson (N.J.) prosecutor Dylan Campbell, who’s crossed swords with Andy before, is convinced that Kenny shot Preston, and the evidence certainly looks strong. But Andy’s not so sure. Nor is his team of investigators, headed by his ex-cop lover Laurie Collins, who’s now talking about leaving Andy to move back to the sticks, and this time including screenwriter Adam Strickland, sent from Hollywood to start converting Andy’s first case (Open and Shut, 2002) into a movie. It turns out that Troy Preston wasn’t the first of Kenny’s old football acquaintances to die; seven others, all healthy young men under 25, have predeceased him, and an eighth, paralyzed Jets coach Bobby Pollard, narrowly escaped death. The only trouble with Andy’s serial-killer theory is that all the evidence points to his client as the serial killer.

All Rosenfelt’s usual pleasures: a twisty plot, crackling courtroom scenes and a thousand wisecracks, some pretty doggoned funny.