In this 4th book in the 'K Team' series, the private detective agency investigates the murder of a police officer and an alleged murder-suicide. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the characters is a bonus.
*****
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 cold cases. This time Stanton lets the investigators choose the cold crimes they'll investigate, and they pick the murder of police officer Danny Avery a year-and-a half ago, and the homicides of retired cop Jimmy Dietrich and Susan Avery (Danny's wife) a few months later.
Danny was shot in his car while he was parked in front of a private home down the street from Marcella's restaurant;
and Jimmy and Susan were found on Jimmy's boat, which was floating in the ocean.
The Jimmy and Susan homicides were called murder-suicide, but Corey - who considered Jimmy a friend and mentor - doesn't believe it.
The K Team speculates that Danny was waiting for someone to leave Marcella's restaurant, and they get Sam Willis - a computer hacker extraordinaire - to get the eatery's customer list for the night in question. This starts an investigation that turns out to be wide-ranging and dangerous.
The K Team also conjectures that the murders of Jimmy and Susan were connected to Danny's death, and their inquiries along these lines reveal important clues.
Corey and Laurie interview witnesses, check phone records, examine computer files, etc. while Marcus provides security and muscle....in case anyone poses a threat or needs a beating to cooperate. Simon Garfunkel helps out as well, since he's been trained to attack bad guys.
Meanwhile, Corey continues his romance with event planner Dani Kendall, and the detective's comments about the relationship provide the lighter moments in the book. For instance Corey recalls that most of his relationships 'lasted about an hour-and-a half, give or take forty-five minutes' but Danny tricked him by being 'funny, smart, beautiful, and independent.' All this has Corey thinking about the M-word, and since he can't bring himself to say the entire word, Corey wonders if Dani might want to M him if he asked. 🙂
As always in Rosenfelt's books, there are a great many characters and a complicated conspiracy at the heart of the plot. Thus the story can be a little confusing, but I enjoyed the novel and recommend it to fans of cozy-ish mysteries.
Thanks to Netgalley, David Rosenfelt, and Minotaur Books for a copy of the manuscript.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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