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OPEN AND SHUT
by David Rosenfelt
Mysterious Press, May 2002
243 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 089296748X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It seems lately that I've written a lot of reviews that begin "This wasn't to my taste, but I suspect lots of people will like it." Guess what? That's how I feel about Open and Shut.

This is a first novel and doesn't read like one. The dialogue is real-sounding, the story moves fairly quickly. Perhaps I shouldn't be annoyed that on the cover it says "a novel"; it's published by Mysterious Press, so certainly it's a mystery, so why not say so? Marketing issues aside, I just didn't have patience with this book.

Andy Carpenter is a defense attorney, and as we are shown early on, he's not above using questionable tactics to get a client off. His father, whom he dearly loves, is a retired prosecutor who asks Andy to handle the seemingly hopeless case of death row inmate Willie Miller. Andy takes it on, the appeal is granted and Miller is given a retrial for the murder of a young woman. Andy, for whom all clients are innocent, thinks there is a good chance Miller really didn't commit the crime, although the alibi is "I was drunk and I don't have any idea". Not a strong case. But when Nelson Carpenter dies suddenly, before Andy can really ask whatever questions he might have. And Andy is suddenly faced with the stunning news that his father's estate contained over $22 million.

The Miller case is interesting but all the side factors in the story bugged me. Andy has gotten involved with an investigator while he's separated from his wife; the wife returns and the author cannot, no matter how hard he tries, explain why these two married and why she came back. She hates what he does for a living, they have little in common and she seems to be a rich snob. Andy is a smartass; that's not a bad thing for me - I'm fond of many fictional smartasses, but he never seems to know when to stop. He insults people for no reason because of it and it's too much of what feels like a defense mechanism. I couldn't warm to Carpenter. It's not his "dogs are the only real love on earth" nonsense, which bores me, it's not his "anyone who doesn't love this sports bar is stupid" tactlessness. It's his cluelessness, maybe, his determination to mouth off at all costs.

There's something very hinky about this new trial; the lawyer and his wife are getting threatening messages, someone sets Andy up in court with an accusation that he's a client's pimp, Miller is attacked by two men in the prison yard who tell him to get his lawyer to lay off, and Andy himself is attacked in his office. Okay, we get the hint.

Andy's found a photo of his dad with some movers and shakers that everyone keeps trying to deny and even that couldn't keep my interest. I think it was, in the long run, that this new story is an old one about money and power and the little guy being screwed by the big guy. And whoever let Rosenfelt use the trite "my secretary sits there all day and never does any work" baloney should be ashamed. It's been overdone in mysteries and frankly, it's a major insult to those who actually have been legal secretaries and without whom the profession would collapse. And yes, I worked as a legal secretary a number of years ago, but I don't get any professional who would keep a do-nothing on the payroll. It makes you look like an inadequate jackass, someone who can't even hire decent help, and it sure doesn't inspire confidence on the part of clients. Maybe that's beyond Andy Carpenter's abilities. He's too busy with sports and his messed-up life and making sure he has the last word.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, April 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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