Part of Series
First at the crime scene, Andy Carpenter wishes he had never seen the folded torso with the large red stain on its back. The victim is Tony Preston, wide receiver for the New York Jets, and the suspect is Kenny Schilling, the New York Giants' star running back who is clamoring for Andy's services. The upcoming high-profile murder case will be the bench-warming Andy's chance to get back into the legal game. It will also prove a handy distraction from the awful possibility that Laurie Collins - the private investigator and living creature Andy adores most next to Tara, his cherished golden retriever - might leave Paterson and Andy's life forever. Digging into the case, Andy stumbles onto some of the seamier undercurrents rushing beneath the large-guy camaraderie, big-buck cushiness, and bone-mashing fun that is pro football. And he discovers that Preston's death is similar to a series of other mysterious murders - all seemingly unrelated yet connected by a horrible secret from many years ago. Despite the crushing evidence, Andy begins to believe in his client's innocence. But when danger finds someone close to him, the unperturbed defender knows he's attracted the attention of a powerful enemy - one who will do anything to take Andy permanently off the field.
Author
I am a novelist with 27 dogs. I have gotten to this dubious position with absolutely no planning, and at no stage in my life could I have predicted it. But here I am. My childhood was relentlessly normal. The middle of three brothers, loving parents, a middle-class home in Paterson, New Jersey. We played sports, studied sporadically. laughed around the dinner table, and generally had a good time. By comparison, "Ozzie and Harriet's" clan seemed bizarre. I graduated NYU, then decided to go into the movie business. I was stunningly brilliant at a job interview with my uncle, who was President of United Artists, and was immediately hired. It set me off on a climb up the executive ladder, culminating in my becoming President of Marketing for Tri-Star Pictures. The movie landscape is filled with the movies I buried; for every "Rambo", "The Natural" and "Rocky", there are countless disasters. I did manage to find the time to marry and have two children, both of whom are doing very well, and fortunately neither have inherited my eccentricities. A number of years ago, I left the movie marketing business, to the sustained applause of hundreds of disgruntled producers and directors. I decided to try my hand at writing. I wrote and sold a bunch of feature films, none of which ever came close to being actually filmed, and then a bunch of TV movies, some of which actually made it to the small screen. It's safe to say that their impact on the American cultural scene has been minimal. About fourteen years ago, my wife and I started the Tara Foundation, named in honor of the greatest Golden Retriever the world has ever known. We rescued almost 4,000 dogs, many of them Goldens, and found them loving homes. Our own home quickly became a sanctuary for those dogs that we rescued that were too old or sickly to be wanted by others. They surround me as I write this. It's total lunacy, but it works, and they are a happy, safe group. http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidr...
