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    Open and Shut
    Open and Shut
    Open and Shut
    Audiobook6 hours

    Open and Shut

    Written by David Rosenfelt

    Narrated by Grover Gardner

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys’ network, irreverent defense attorney Andy Carpenter always leaves them awed with his biting wit and winning fourth-quarter game plan. But the fun stops the day Andy’s dad, Paterson, New Jersey’s legendary ex-D.A., drops dead in front of him at a game in Yankee Stadium. The shocks pile on as he discovers his dad left him with two unexpected legacies: a fortune of $22 million that Andy never knew existed… and a murder case with enough racial tinder to burn down City Hall. Struggling to serve justice and bring honor to his father, Andy must dig up some explosive political skeletons--and an astonishing family secret that can close his case (and his mouth) for good. Open and Shut heralds--no contest--the year’s most sensational new voice in mystery fiction: David Rosenfelt.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherListen & Live Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 2002
    ISBN9781593163907
    Open and Shut
    Author

    David Rosenfelt

    DAVID ROSENFELT is the Edgar-nominated and Shamus Award-winning author of more than twenty Andy Carpenter novels, including One Dog Night, Collared, and Deck the Hounds; its spinoff series, The K-Team; the Doug Brock thriller series, which starts with Fade to Black; and stand-alone thrillers including Heart of a Killer and On Borrowed Time. Rosenfelt and his wife live in Maine with an ever-changing pack of rescue dogs. Their epic cross-country move with 25 of these dogs, culminating in the creation of the Tara Foundation, is chronicled in Dogtripping.

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    Reviews for Open and Shut

    4.5/5

    240 ratings40 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Listening to the lame jokes and constant sarcasm from the narrator was beyond annoying!! The whole time I listen to this very predictable book I kept thinking that Hawkeye Pierce from mash was telling the story!
    • 4/5
      I found out about this author on the news when he was traveling with a team of RVs and volunteers with a group of dogs to a new location. Some weeks later I picked up his first book and loved it. I am now on the fourth book in his Andy Carpenter series. I like reading about Patterson, although I did not grow up there, I did live in New Jersey and had visited there. I was also familiar with the sports teams he writes about. I further like Tara who couldn't,Laurie,Kevin and others. They come off as people you just have to know.
    • 4/5
      Two years ago, defense attorney Andy Carpenter’s father asked him to take on the death-row appeal of a man he himself had prosecuted as the New Jersey D.A. five years earlier. A secret inheritance and mysterious photo make Andy wonder how well he knew his father, but between the unusually short preparation period for the appeal case; an aborted romance with his private investigator, Laurie; the return of his estranged wife, Nicole; and the death threats he starts to receive, Andy is under pressure to figure out who actually did commit the murder his client was accused of. The first-person point of view and present tense keeps the suspense level high, while Andy’s wise-cracking and grandstanding make the case preparation and courtroom scenes entertaining. Open and Shut is the first in a ongoing series now at #12. Tara, Andy’s dog, doesn’t play as much of a role as the book implied, but Tara may become more of a character as the series goes along. The author has also written some standalone thrillers, but all of the books in the Andy Carpenter series have a dog on the front cover.
    • 4/5
      This is the first of Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series. I picked it up because Rosenfelt's books are extraordinarily popular at my former library, and now that I'm retired I actually have time to read! It was fun but surely not great literature. Think of Robert Parker's Spenser, set him in New Jersey, make him an attorney, and give him a golden retriever. There are a couple mysteries going on here: one, before Andy's father died, he told Andy to defend a death row prisoner because he was innocent of the crime he had been convicted of; and, two, Andy finds a photo of his father and three other men taken many years ago, and senses that it is related to the incredibly large estate his father left to him. As he sets out to solve both of this issues, he struggles with his marriage and recruits several people to work with him. I suspect we will see these folks again in future books, and there will be more story and less getting-to-know-the-characters. Yes, I'll try another. For one thing, how is he going to spend those millions of dollars his father left him?? A good solid legal mystery with lots of humor. Perfect for a gloomy fall afternoon!
    • 4/5
      Wow! I haven't enjoyed a mystery so much in years. If you like Perry Mason style stories, and want to spend a lazy afternoon with a good mystery, this is for you.
    • 5/5
      I loved Andy's sense of humor. It's a favorite thing of mine when books make me laugh out loud and this one certainly did. I'll be listening to the rest of this series.
    • 4/5
      David Rosenfelt writes about a defense attorney in New Jersey. My roommate read this book and then got the audio of book two, which I listened to with her (breaking one of my "rules" about reading a series in order). So, reading this book, the first in the series, I had the voice of the narrator in my head. Sometimes this is bad, but in this case it was great. I would never had read the lines with the same amount of "smart ass sarcasm" that appear in the book, and I loved that I managed to put that into the book since the author obviously meant it to be read that way.

      In this case lawyer Andy Carpenter is faced with defending someone who has been on death row for seven years. When his father, a retired District Attorney, gives him some information about the case and asks him to file for a retrial, Andy can't say no.

      What follows is a complicated case that involves Willie in the current case but for some reason seems to stretch back almost forty years and involve his father, somehow.

      Having heard the 2nd book I know that these characters continue and will stay true to what occurs in this first in a series.

      Now, on to #3
    • 5/5
      murder-investigation, law-enforcement, lawyers, snarky, verbal-humor Reads like the 2018 SCOTUS incident gone extremely and horribly wrong. Add in problems with recently ex wife, a client who was railroaded seven years prior and currently on death row, and Andy's other personal crises and you have everything about the book except Andy's incorrigible snarkiness. This is a very good read!
    • 5/5
      Wise character development with a sense of humor and lots of twists and turns. Well worth reading!
    • 3/5
      This is the first novel in a long series by the author - all with the lead character being defense attorney Andy Carpenter. The books are fairly simple with some interesting plot twists coming at the end. The books are fairly short and easily read. Good pandemic reads - I am about to begin #9 in the series.
    • 5/5
      This is a first novel - actually, I think a first book - but I only know that because I looked it up. You sure can't tell by reading it. It has a tight, interesting plot, wonderful rich characters and a voice that is really fun to read. It's not a comic novel but there are some great one liners in it. Andy Carpenter is a lawyer with an unwinable case and a messy life. But you root for him from page 1. Rosenfelt's next book featuring this same lawyer is already out. I'm on my way to get me a copy!
    • 4/5
      Wow. A wise-acre defense attorney in Paterson, N.J. with wife trouble is asked by his father to take on an appeal for a man on death row, a man the father himself prosecuted seven years before. The son reluctantly agrees, and discovers a lot more about his father, his inheritance, and the rich people of his area than he had known before. Lively, driving, full of wit, silliness, seriousness, and a great noir feel even though it feels pretty sunny in New Jersey.
    • 4/5
      Perfect 'summer literature'. Interesting plot, believable characters, entertaining from the start to the end. And funny!
    • 4/5
      A quick, light, funny read. The one that hooked me on the Andy Carpenter series. When I need an easy escape, this is a good place to go.
    • 3/5
      There is definitely something in the water of New Jersey because authors with an abundance of wit seem to spring from its soil in gratifying numbers. Brad Parks, Chris Grabenstein, Jeffrey Cohen, Janet Evanovich, and David Rosenfelt... to name a few. Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter is a first-rate smart mouth with quick wits and a soft heart (just like I like all my heroes). His ex-wife is a spoiled little rich girl who's never found a need to abandon Daddy, and the woman investigator in his law practice wants more commitment from him than Andy's ready to give. No wonder Tara represents his best relationship.There are two main plot lines in Open and Shut: where Andy's father got that $22 million, and the retrial of Willie Miller, a man who was convicted of a murder he didn't commit. Both are interesting, and how Rosenfelt connects the two is very good. However, the pace is like a yo-yo. Fast. Slow. Fast. Slow. It needed some tightening to keep the book's momentum running smoothly. But this is the first of a long-running series, and since I have a penchant for canines and New Jersey writers, I know I'm going to be back for more.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of the Myron Bolitar series by Harlan Coben. Andy Carpenter is a wise cracking attorney, into sports, who finds himself in the middle of a murder case with a deep secret. Andy is separated from his wife, Nicole. Nicole is the daughter of a powerful senator, Philip Gant, who was good friends with Andy's father. Willie Miller is on death row, convicted of the murder of Denise McGregor. Andy's father was the prosecutor on the case. Now, something has happened which can overturn the conviction, and Andy's father has asked Andy to handle the case.
      Very well written, with just enough humor to keep you laughing while reading about corruption, evil, and murder. David Rosenfelt plants all the clues along the way, and I did guess who was behind it, and where it happened well before it was revealed. Still, a very good read.
      #OpenandShut #DavidRosenfelt #AndyCarpenter
    • 4/5
      Open and Shut is a fun, legal thriller featuring Andy Carpenter, a defense lawyer working in Northern Jersey. Andy's techniques are questionable at best but he seems to win a lot of cases. I liked the writing. I listened to the audio version and often found myself sitting in my car after reaching my destination, waiting for a break in the action before stepping out. I also liked the setting. NJ is where I was raised, so I enjoyed the references to places like Passaic, Paterson, Bergen County, and Franklin Lakes.One of the things that makes this novel unique is Andy's relationship with his dog, a golden retriever named Tara. He finds more comfort in time spent with Tara than anywhere else. Andy's also an avid sports fan and has some superstitions quirks. All these aspects of his character bring color to the story.Andy's father was a well respected District Attorney who died suddenly while watching a Yankees game with his son. A short time prior to his death, Andy's father had made an unusual request. He wanted Andy to represent Willie Miller, a man Andy's father had sent to prison seven years earlier. Willie Miller had been convicted of murder, but claimed he was innocent. He was receiving a new trial due to a technicality. Since no new evidence was involved, the case was supposed to be Open and Shut, hence the novel's title.I had mixed feelings about the way Andy's personal life and his professional life are intertwined. It was interesting, but there were a few too many coincidences for my taste. This begins with defending a man his father convicted, but it doesn't stop there.Overall, I enjoyed the book and plan to read other David Rosenfelt novels.Steve Lindahl – author of Motherless Soul, White Horse Regressions, Hopatcong Vision Quest, and Under a Warped Cross
    • 4/5
      Alexander Carpenter, at his father Nelson’s request, takes on the case of convicted murderer, Willie Miller, who has been granted a new trial based on a technicality. The senior Carpenter, a retired judge, was the D.A. who handled the original case seven years earlier, where all the evidence pointed to a guilty Mr. Miller.Shortly after taking the case, Alex’s father dies suddenly. As Alex is cleaning out his boyhood home, he comes across a photo of a young Nelson and three other young man who rose to prominence. Alex is surprised that Nelson knew these gentlemen as young men. He’s even more surprised to find that his father has a next egg of $22 million tht he never touched, stemming from a one time payment of $2 million deposited around the time the photo was taken.As Alex and his investigator, Laurie, delve into both the trial and the photo, Alex’s life seems to be in danger and he’s convinced that the photo and the retrial are related.Open and Shut is the first in the Alex Carpenter 15 book series. I’m not typically a fan of the ‘humorous’ mystery but Rosenfelt is able to combine some humor with an interesting story, a reasonable amount of action and a dog. What more can you ask for? Alex is a ‘normal’ guy, unsure of himself, doing dumb things on occasion, totally out of his league when it comes to romance. He’s not cocky. He’s not a hero. He doesn’t beat up everyone who gets in his way. He’s self-deprecating.While I may not make it my business to read every book in the series, I certainly will pick up another book in the Carpenter series and future books will be on my radar.
    • 5/5
      good legal mystery, lots of humor, good narrator
    • 4/5
      Andy Carpenter is a criminal defense attorney with a high sense of ethics, a (now retired) prosecutor father whom he deeply admires, a broken marriage, a new girl friend, and a beautiful Golden Retriever, Tara, rescued from a kill shelter. He's enjoying his life.

      Life is about to get much more interesting than he wants.

      His father asks him to take on the appeal of a death penalty case he successfully prosecuted a few years ago. Willie Miller has been convicted, and sentenced to death, in the brutal murder of a reporter who was dating the son of a very wealthy local businessman. Nelson Carpenter has learned that one of the jurors lied during jury selection about something that would certainly have kept her off the jury; he's gotten this from a privileged source, but he can't just let it lie, either. Against his better judgment, Andy agrees to take on the appeal.

      A few days later, Nelson Carpenter dies in front of his son, at a baseball game. And Andy discovers he has two unexpected legacies: $22 million that he never suspected his father had, and a picture of his father and three other men, taken thirty-five years ago. Just about the time his father acquired the $2 million which has since become $22 million, in fact.

      Andy now has two mysteries to solve--what really happened the night the reporter was murdered, and how did his father come by the money that he never touched or mentioned.

      What's worse, it looks like the two mysteries may be connected.

      Andy is smart, sarcastic, a bit theatrical--a bit more theatrical than some judges like--and deeply, deeply ethical. He can't let either mystery go, even with the death threats start, and it looks like finding the source of the money may change what he thinks he knows about his father.

      This is a fun, fast-paced, but thoughtful story, asking tough questions about ethics, honesty, and loyalty to family and friends.

      Recommended.

      I received this book as a gift from a friend.
    • 4/5
      Defense attorney Andy Carpenter has finagled a re-trial for a guy convicted of murder several years ago. He has also just found out that he inherited wealth from his father that he knew nothing about. An old photo of his father and some high rollers raises more questions about possible connections with this case. In the meantime, his x-wife wants to reconcile and his girlfriend is his investigator. Lots to juggle, but the author pulls it off handily.
    • 3/5
      This was better than I thought it would be at first. It's got a broad streak of humor which was a bit irritating, then grew on me, perhaps because the reader did it so well. The main character is a lawyer, not the heroic type, but he does stick through thick & thin. The problem was a twisty one & wound up well. While there's certainly room to continue the series, there wasn't any cliff hanger.

      I'd like to give this 4 stars because it's the beginning of a good series & I usually bump the first book up, but there was one part of the plot that really bugged me. I just couldn't buy into the picture. How he kept thinking it was important, how he found it, & why it tied in to his current case. It would have helped a lot if his father had left it out in a better location. Too coincidental & it just never really fit in well for me.

      Still, it was a fun book & I've started the second.
    • 5/5
      Fun read. Andy teies to sound gruff but he is a kind soul. His sarcastic wit keeps the laughs coming while the storyline keeps your attention. I listened to this on a long drive and almost wanted to drive a bit out of the way just to keep listening. I look forward to reading the series.
    • 4/5
      The characters are distinct and believable. The story itself is a bit predictable and you certainly won't be on the edge of your seat wondering whodunnit - but the characters are well-written and the story is well-paced, making it very enjoyable to follow. There are some very funny "one-liners" throughout the story, and much of the time they are unexpected which makes for a very pleasant surprise. If the story was just a smidge less predictable it'd have been even better. I will, however, be reading more Andy Carpenter stories, for sure.
    • 5/5
      This series should have its own genre. It's part mystery, part cozy, part suspense, part thriller, and part humor. And it has a bit romance thrown in for good measure. And yes, part dog story. Author David Rosenfelt pulls it all together into a cohesive and thoroughly enjoyable read, book after book. In this first novel, we learn how Andy got his fortune and how his first marriage dissolved. We meet some of the major characters. Andy must be part bulldog himself, because he never lets go of a case until he digs out the truth. And while the truth make set some free, it can hurt innocent people. Still Andy perseveres through it all, letting the chips fall where they will. A well-written novel in a series that only gets better.
    • 4/5
      This is book one of the Andy Carpenter lawyer series that read like part crime novels and part standup comedy routines.Andy is defending a death row inmate, Willie Miller, on appeal, at his father’s request. His father, a retired State District Attorney, prosecuted Miller initially, which makes his request rather odd, but his father died suddenly before Andy could query him further. To add to the mystery, Andy is shocked to discover his father has left him 22 million dollars! This is the same father who claimed he could hardly afford to send Andy to camp.Andy has relationship problems too. There are other females in his life besides his beloved seven year old golden retriever Tara. He has an estranged wife Nicole, from whom he has been separated for six months, and a new girlfriend, Laurie, who is an ex-cop and also his research assistant. After his father’s funeral, Nicole indicates she wants to give the marriage another try, and Andy feels obliged to reciprocate.Meanwhile, the Miller case - supposedly an “open and shut” case - is starting to look like a frame-up. Worse yet, Andy is convinced his father and all the money are somehow connected.Evaluation: This is not only a really good crime novel, but a very, very funny book. I read this because I stumbled into the series at the end with the book Dog Tags, and knew at once this series was worth going back to the beginning, in spite of my obsessive/compulsive horror at going backwards in a series. But I love this guy! I can’t wait to read more!
    • 5/5

      I thought the character Carpenter was very likeable.great story
    • 4/5
      The first in a long-running series of mystery/legal procedurals about a lawyer and his dog. I enjoyed this well enough but kept wishing the main character was more nuanced under his smart-aleckiness. (Has Dean Winchester ruined me for smart aleck dudes who aren't hiding a whole mess of nuance under their sarcastic exterior? Yeah, very probably.) I enjoyed this well enough but am not dying to read any more. Also: not enough dog.
    • 5/5
      I just love the Andy Carpenter novels! He has such a great wit, excellent stories, exciting characters! I am ready for the next story!!!
    • 4/5
      Nicely done! I really enjoyed this book and I expect I'll be binging the Andy Carpenter series after this. Well written with just the right amount of humor. Dialogue was easy and the story kept my interest to the end. A great match between story and narrator. Overall, a really fun read.