After 20+ books (and counting!) in a series, what's an author to do? Well, if you have the dog food bills that David Rosenfelt must have (seriously, check out the photos on his website or Facebook page of the dogs he and his wife shelter), you create a spin-off. I found myself comparing the books a lot in the paragraphs that follow—I won't make a habit out of it as the series progresses, but I kept comparing them as I read, so that's how I think of the book. I hope it doesn't get too tiring.
In 2019's Dachshund Through the Snow, we met Former Paterson NJ police officer Corey Douglas and his German Shepherd partner, Simon Garfunkel. At the end of that novel, Corey had decided to join forces with Laurie and Marcus to form a detective agency. This is their first case—and what a way to start!
Longtime Andy Carpenter antagonist, the harsh, yet fair, Judge Henry Henderson (aka Hatchet) hires the team to look into a blackmailer trying to pressure the judge into something. He doesn't know what the blackmailer wants yet, but he knows there's enough to damage (probably fatally!) his career. The arrangement they enter into means that Andy won't be able to try a case before Hatchet again—which bummed me out, he wasn't a constant presence in those novels, but a frequent one—probably the only judge's name I recognized. I enjoyed watching Andy squirm around the judge.
But now, it's Hatchet's turn to squirm. The blackmailers (well, potential blackmailers—he's quick to note they haven't actually broken the law yet), have some manufactured evidence to make it look like he's crooked. He's not, and has enough of a reputation and goodwill to weather the storm. Probably. But the hint of scandal would taint his record and probably force him off the bench.
So, Corey, Laurie, and Marcus get to work—looking into cases the judge presided over and could be alleged to have influenced. Before long, the threats get more real and bodies start appearing (or, disappearing, in some cases). And well, that's really all I can safely say. But fans of the Andy Carpenter books will be familiar with the way things play out—and new readers will be entertained by it, too.
Marcus doesn't do much more (especially on the dialogue front) in The K Team than he does in a typical Andy Carpenter book, he's basically an unintelligible superhuman (yeah, the jokes about the protagonist's inability to understand him are of the same genus as the ones in the Carpenter novels, but they're a different species coming from Corey—I was surprised at how refreshing that was). I think he probably gets a little more space devoted to him than he typically gets, but he does basically what we're used to seeing. There are a couple of exceptions, including what I believe is the longest hand-to-hand fight scene we've seen from him.
Even Laurie isn't featured as much as I expected. Actually, that's an understatement. I assumed that this would be Laurie's series with a couple of sidekicks—or maybe an equally Laurie and Corey series with Marcus showing up to do his thing every now and then. Maybe a third person kind of thing alternating between focusing on each character. But no, this is first person from Corey's POV—so we get a lot of Laurie, but most of what she did was off-screen, only teaming up with Corey for bigger moments or to discuss what they'd done together. It's not what I expected, but I can live with it (I just wish she'd get to shine a bit more).
So, Corey...we get to know him a bit better here than we did in his first appearance, obviously. He's single—deliberately—and very devoted to Simon (but not the same way that Andy is to Tara), they worked together and are now shifting to a new career together. Corey's a bit more willing to leave Simon out of some of the action than say, Bernie Little is (eager, occasionally, for Simon's safety). He's a movie buff—a little bit of a nerd about them, it seems—and I look forward to seeing this more. He's good at his job, still a straight arrow (the kind of cop he was), but is discovering that he's more willing to color outside the lines than he thought. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.
The humor is a similar style to the one employed in the Andy Carpenter books, but it's not Andy's voice in a different body. Corey is distinctive, but fans of the one will tend to enjoy the other. That's half the point (maybe 70% of the point) of a spin-off, right? Similar, but not equal—that applies for the voice, the humor, and the story.
If you've never read an Andy Carpenter book, don't worry. Just think of this as the good idea it is—a team of PI's working together instead of a lone operator with an occasional side-kick. A trio is so rare in the PI fiction biz that I can't wait to see it at work more in future installments. I enjoyed this enough that I'm ready to read the next two at least. There was so much set-up to The K Team that Rosenfelt almost had to shoe-horn the plot around it. This was a good intro to the series, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Rosenfelt has in store for the team now that he's been able to establish things.
Disclaimer: I received this eARC from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.
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