Found myself wishing for more Andy Carpenter instead.

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First book in a new series by David Rosenfelt. I really enjoy the Andy Carpenter series. This series has the writing and the mystery but it is missing the humor and the interesting characters.

K Team
1. The K Team (2020)
2. Animal Instinct (2021)
3. Citizen K-9 (2022)
4. Good Dog, Bad Cop (2023)

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This is the first in the spin off series based on characters from the (much loved) Andy Carpenter series. There are several familiar faces here but this seems to be darker (though not without humor) than its predecessor. The K Team is made up of Laurie, Marcus, retired cop Corey and his retired canine Simon Garfunkel. It is told from Corey's perspective and Corey is rougher around the edges than our witty Andy. It is a dark and murderous tale but I enjoyed this first book and will read more.

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Because I really enjoy David Rosenfelt's banter and wise-cracking humor, I was eager to try his new series about a retired policeman and his retired police dog: The K Team. Fortunately, most of the usual suspects are in attendance. Laurie Carpenter (former police officer and wife of Andy Carpenter, the lawyer) and her partner, Marcus (a moving mountain-of-a-man) join forces with retired Corey Douglas (and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel).

Their first case comes with another familiar name, Judge Henry Henderson (Hatchet), a judge of Andy Carpenter's fame. He's a difficult, but fair judge on the bench who now finds himself being blackmailed and extorted. He hires the K Team, to keep the police out of the matter. He wants to find out what is going on without having the blackmailers announce what they have on him.

This series is a bit different than the Andy Carpenter books. Andy plays a prefatory role (to get things started) but there isn't the focus on a court case. It may be there in the background, but the focus is really on the investigation side of crime. It was an interesting byplay of Corey coming to grips with the wildly illegal computer workings of Sam (the accountant who wants to be 007). Corey, being a straight-laced cop, has difficulty accepting illegal computer work from Sam. But that's another story.

There's less of the wise-cracking humor (that seems to belong to Andy) here, but the story makes up for that. It is fast-paced and fascinating. And in the end, there's always the winner's party at Charlie's Bar.

K Team Series
** 1. The K Team (2020)
2. Animal Instinct (2021) (available3/21)

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