Open and Shut: An Old Murder Case, An Old picture, and An Inheritance

Just finished reading Open and Shut by David Rosenfelt.  Held my interest to the point that I was reading till minutes to 3:00am on Thursday night and had to wake up 6:30 next morning for work.  What seemed like a clear open and shut case turned out to be a really big case for the protagonist Andy Carpenter, a defense attorney.

Andy Carpenter is a likable character; he is youthful, superstitious, with a quirky sense of humor. At the beginning of the story he is separated from his wife who was his childhood sweetheart and daughter of his Dad's friend. He has a romantic relationship with his female investigator that he ends when the wife suddenly moves back in the marital home. We learn that Alex loves his Dad and his dog, a golden retriever.  His Dad prosecuted a case years ago and it ended with Willie Miller being sent to prison for murder and facing the death penalty in four weeks time.  Daddy Carpenter asks his son to look into the case, get the facts and get an appeal, because he now has information that a juror in the Miller case may have lied and Miller may have been innocent. The Dad dies suddenly (and conveniently) and shortly after that Andy finds an old photo of his Dad with some of his friends. Andy meets with his Dad's lawyer and discovers to his shock that he has inherited millions of dollars from his Dad.

This legal thriller was about how an old photo, the millions of dollars inherited and the Miller case were all connected.  This was the first novel in a series by David Rosenefelt. The next book in the series is First Degree.