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K Team, Book 1

From the publisher:

From bestselling mystery author David Rosenfelt comes a new series – a spinoff of the much beloved Andy Carpenter mysteries – about a dynamic new investigative team featuring a determined former cop and his loyal German Shepherd.

Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel, have recently retired from the police force. Not ready to give up the life yet, they come up with a proposal for fellow former cop, Laurie Carpenter, and her investigating partner, Marcus. Laurie and Marcus – who help out Laurie’s lawyer husband Andy on cases – have been chafing to jump back into investigating on their own, so they are in.

They call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon. Their first job as private investigators comes to them from Judge Henry Henderson, who’s known as a very tough but fair judge, and they’ve all come up against him in court at one time or another. Though it’s hard to believe, Judge Henderson is being blackmailed and extorted, and he doesn’t want to involve the police–he needs the K Team to figure out why.

The novel is advertised as a spinoff of the very popular Andy Carpenter stories. It is, but not much changes. Andy’s wife Laurie, a former policewoman, the very vocal Marcus and Corey Douglas, a retired policeman, form an investigatory company and decide to take on cases in order to make money.

Corey was introduced in one of the latest Andy Carpenter books when he filed suit against the department he worked for demanding that they retire into his care the K9 that he had worked with. The lawsuit prevailed and the dog named Simon Garfunkel also becomes a member of the team. The group takes the name the K team thanks to Simon and their first job is to investigate a blackmail campaign against a judge with a reputation of being tough but fair. They must find out why he is being blackmailed, put a stop to it and get evidence against the blackmailers.

Corey is the only character that is not a regular in the Andy Carpenter series but takes Andy’s place as the source of wisecracks for the group. Using some personnel from the regular Carpenter family as well as an appearance by Andy himself, the writing is reminiscent of the storylines of the Carpenter series. For fans of those books, the reward is that additional plots not necessarily revolving around court trials can be utilized and still maintain the delightful styling that the reader looks for in a David Rosenfelt book.

A welcome addition to the author’s long list of entertaining fiction and also keeping in the practice of featuring beloved dogs that move in and out of the stories. And yes, the ending is the satisfying one we are accustomed to.

3/2020 Paul Lane

THE K TEAM by David Rosenfelt. Minotaur Books (March 24, 2020). ISBN: 978-1250257192. 304p.

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From the publisher:

A country to kill for …

The career of Claire Marcoux, a young naval officer, threatens to come crashing down after she orders the ship under her command to return fire on a boat that she was supposed to rescue. The quiet life of Daniel Ritter, a new professor in a new town, is turned upside down when the celebrity entrepreneur he was unexpectedly invited to meet is found murdered. Thrown together by chance, Claire and Daniel discover that they are involved in the same fight against an unknown enemy — a foe with a plot that endangers the lives of many … and the very existence of the country they both cherish.

An entertaining adventure story taking place in Canada comprises Fralich’s first published novel. He does an entertaining job of putting two quite diverse people together working to solve a mystery that could affect the future direction of the country.

The province of Alberta is getting ready to vote on staying or withdrawing from the Canadian union and there are a great many diverse opinions on both sides of the aisle. The direction taken could make fortunes for people betting on the right side. All of the country is involved in examining the situation, remembering all too well the conditions surrounding the preceding occurrence when Quebec underwent the same path and remained in the union.

Claire Marcoux is a career naval officer and has just taken over her first command of a ship on active duty. She is tested when her ship encounters a probable smuggler who attacks her instead of surrendering as should be. With no choice in the matter, she orders her gunnery mate to fire back with the subsequent sinking of the smugglers’ boat. As commander of the vessel, Claire faces a board of inquiry and enters into a period of uncertainty when she finds herself facing the dislike of an officer over her.

Daniel Ritter is a new professor and falls into a strange problem when a self-made and celebrated entrepreneur invites him to meet and discuss the man’s actions but is suddenly found murdered. Both Claire and Daniel apparently have completely different problems, but strangely find that they have mutual interests in solving what is before them. Claire is not at all backward in handling different and often violent situations, and it appears that Daniel has a background that involved at some point the use of weapons and the fighting arts.

Where this goes is well done and sets the stage quite neatly for future novels involving the two principal characters or if not, other novels that would very well prove entertaining to read.

3/2020 Paul Lane

TRUE PATRIOTS by Russell Fralich. Grand Central Publishing (March 17, 2020). ISBN: 978-1538748145. 384p.

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From the publisher:

From the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author!

The enemy is invisible and moving fast. The body count is rising. And time is running out.
Marcus Ryker has spent his entire career studying killers. One thing he knows for sure: a peace summit is the ultimate stage for an assassination.

President Andrew Clarke is determined to announce his historic peace plan from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But when senior American officials who support the plan begin violently dying, Clarke orders Ryker and his team of CIA operatives to hunt down those responsible and bring the killing spree to an end.

When the Palestinians denounce the American plan, the Saudis signal they may be ready to forge a historic treaty with Israel. Could the Saudi king’s support be the missing ingredient that will lead to peace at long last?

Ryker soon uncovers a chilling plot to kill the American president. A well-resourced international alliance is dead set against the peace plan. They will stop at nothing to strike a blow against the Americans and seize leadership of the Muslim world.

With all eyes on Jerusalem and the president in the crosshairs, it’s up to Ryker to eliminate the terrible evil that’s been set in motion. The fate of the region depends on his success. He has 48 hours.

Rosenberg is the author of many books most of which deal with the situation currently prevalent in the Middle East. He has established a reputation as a man whose writings echo the reality of what is happening in that area of the world and whose opinions are sought by many leaders involved in finding their way in the tumult of that region.

The Jerusalem Assassin is a novel that focuses on the interest of the president of the United States in fostering a peace between the Arab nations and Israel. He intends to travel to Jerusalem and set up a meeting between himself, the President of Israel and the ruler of Saudi Arabia. The accord reached by the three leaders is seen to also bring peace between the Palestinians and Israel between whom years of negotiation have not yielded any advances.

A new terrorist group formed in Greece is opposed to such a meeting and commences assassinating Americans sent as an advance group to lay the groundwork for the talks. The US president sends Marcus Ryker and a supporting team of CIA operatives to stop the assassinations and bring the killers to justice.

The work of Ryker and his team in moving the talks forward is handled with a style that creates an impossibility for the reader to lay down the book before finishing it. It is action and more action, but logically handled as the time for the talks to start looms closer and closer with the Terrorist group moving their agenda forward as well. At the same time, Rosenberg keeps the terror state of Iran front and center certainly setting the stage for continuous action for Marcus Ryker in forthcoming novels. I’m certainly looking forward to those when they are published.

3/2020 Paul Lane

THE JERUSALEM ASSASSIN by Joel C Rosenberg. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (March 17, 2020). ISBN: 978-1496437846. 464p.

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