DOG DAY AFTERNOON

A favor for his friend and associate Marcus Clark lands Paterson, New Jersey, attorney Andy Carpenter back in the courtroom for another impossible defense.

A man shows up at the offices of Moore Law and uses six bullets to kill six people, leaving only attorney Sally Montrose and paralegal Laura Schauble alive to identify him from his tattoo and distinctive footgear as handyman Nick Williams. Even a tyro would realize that the murders are the work of a professional hit man, but lead prosecutor Richard Wallace is no tyro, and when the cops find the murder weapon in a trash bin a few blocks from Nick’s home with Nick’s fingerprint on it, he seems done for. Along the way, though, Marcus, who’s served as an informal mentor to Nick and his friend Rafe Duran, asks Andy to defend him. Much as he hates the practice of law, Andy can’t say no to Marcus, and he’s soon gathering evidence that will link the six killings—more will follow, since Andy has a habit of warning suspicious characters that they have only a day or so to fess up before he turns them in—to a complex series of insurance frauds whose basis turns out to be beautifully simple. Andy jokes less than usual (a definite minus), presumably because the evidence against his client is overwhelming, but the international intrigue behind so many of his recent cases is mercifully absent here (a definite plus).

Solid legal thrills from a master of the light touch. And the dog you’d forgotten about turns up to brighten the final scene.