Deck the Hounds

This is the holiday that just keeps on giving Christmas reading pleasures!  On a post-Christmas visit to the library, I discovered that one of my favorite authors, David Rosenfelt, had written a second Yule-themed Andy Carpenter mystery - Deck the Hounds (#798).  Frankly, he is so much like his curmudgeonly character Andy that I was surprised Rosenfelt came out with a first one - The Twelve Dogs of Christmas (See my post of 12/27/2016.) - let alone a second one.  Both are intricately plotted, but this one kept me up into the wee hours of the morning to find out the motivation behind the murders.

According to Andy's wife, Laurie, Christmas officially begins with Thanksgiving dinner and stretches until sometime at the end of February.  Their adopted son Ricky is onboard with this view; Andy, not so much.  However he does try to do his bit to make life a little easier for the homeless men and women he encounters on the street, especially if they happen to have a dog with them.  In fact, he even carries a wad of PetSmart gift cards in his wallet specifically for that purpose.  So when he comes across a man and his dog outside a pawn shop, he gives them some financial aid.

When the guy running the county animal shelter calls Andy about a dog brought in by the police for biting the man who attacked his homeless owner on the street, Andy is surprised to see that it's the same pair he helped out earlier.  No good deed ever goes unpunished, so when the local newspaper does a human interest story on them for the holidays, which includes the name of the homeless man, it sets in motion a train of events leading to Don Carrigan's arrest for murder; a murder he claims he did not commit.

Once again, Andy finds himself reluctantly involved in a baffling case, but as he becomes convinced of Don's innocence, it will be a race to find enough evidence to point to another person as the perpetrator who framed him for a truly disturbing series of crimes.

A great read, and there are puppies!