Review of "Citizen K-9: A K Team Mystery" by David Rosenfelt

In this 3rd book in the 'K Team' series, the private detective agency investigates the disappearance of two people a decade ago. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

The K Team series is a spin-off of Rosenfelt's humorous 'Andy Carpenter' mystery series, set in Paterson, New Jersey. Andy is a criminal defense lawyer whose wife, private detective Laurie Collins Carpenter, is the investigator for his firm.

Now Laurie is part of a new detective agency that calls itself 'The K Team.' The members of The K Team are Laurie;



Marcus Clark - the toughest, scariest guy on the planet;



Corey Douglas - a retired cop; and Simon Garfunkel - a K-9 German shepherd who worked with Corey at the Paterson Police Department.



The Paterson Police Department has extra money for consultants, so Homicide Captain Pete Stanton hires the K Team to look into a cold case. A decade ago, Chris Vogel and Kim Baskin left a high school reunion together and were never seen again. The schoolmates had no known personal relationship - and Kim was engaged to be married - so the duo vanishing at the same time is especially mysterious.



The K Team looks at old high school yearbooks to identify friends of the deceased, and interviews people who knew them. The detectives learn that teenage Chris Vogel was an intelligent nerd who belonged to organizations like the science club and the debate club.....



.....and adult Chris Vogel had a reputation for using drugs and gambling.



As for Kim, she was an average high school girl who hung out with her friends.



The K Team speculates that Chris was killed because of his drug connections, and Kim - who became a responsible adult with a good job - was collateral damage.

Since Corey and Laurie are former cops they know the drug kingpins in Paterson, and they look into the possibility of a gang related hit on Chris. Investigation of the drug lords leads to threats against Corey's girlfriend Dani, whose life may well be in danger. Additional murders complicate the case, and the K Team has its work cut out for it.

As usual, the characters are a high point of the story. Corey and his dog Simon visit their old police precinct, and Simon struts through like the Grand Marshall of a parade, getting petted by everyone;



tough guy Marcus dispatches bad guys before they even see him coming;



gray-haired computer hacker Sam gathers information and tracks cell phones;



Andy is tapped for free legal advice and take-out food and pizza for the K Team - four pizzas for Marcus and four pizzas for everyone else to share;



Andy and Laurie's dogs Tara, Sebastian, and Hunter play with Simon; and so on.



Corey's intuition helps him unmask the perpetrators, who turn out to be a dangerous bunch. Corey is the story's narrator and his dry sense of humor - and sardonic comments - add fun to the tale.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Fred Berman, who does a fine job. Fans of the K Team won't want to miss this story.

Thanks to Netgalley, David Rosenfelt, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars