Book Review: Good Dog, Bad Cop by David Rosenfelt

This fourth installment of the K-Team series finds our private investigators continuing their work looking into cold cases for the Paterson Police Department. Former police officer Corey Douglas—whose retired K9 unit dog Simon Garfunkel gives the squad its name—has his eye on one case in particular. The human members of his team all agree that the next case they should take on is the unsolved murder of police officer Danny Avery, whose widow Susan and retired mentor Jimmy Dietrich were also shot to death a short time later. 

Homicide Captain Pete Stanton is less than thrilled to give them the go-ahead on the latter two victims, as the prevailing opinion is that Jimmy killed Susan then committed suicide—a definite blow to the morale if not reputation of the local police department. Though he finally lets the team take on the cases, he warns that they may not like what they find.

Corey is certain that Jimmy, who acted as mentor to himself as well as to many of the station’s other cops, was framed. He’s also certain that whoever killed Susan and framed Jimmy for it was merely continuing to cover up the trail leading to the identity of Danny’s killer. 

Shortly before Danny’s death, a shadow had fallen over his career prospects. In responding to a domestic violence call, he had fatally shot the perpetrator, Frank Gilmore. Though there was no disputing that Frank had been brandishing a gun, there had been a lot of outrage in the wake of his death due to his status as a local philanthropist and upstanding member of the community. It was no secret that Danny had been obsessed with exploding this reputation and in the process getting his career back on track.

Question is, was the Gilmore case the reason Danny was shot? Or is a greater conspiracy afoot, one that won’t hesitate to snuff out anyone or any dog sniffing into their business?

The K-Team is, of course, more than ready to meet any challenge. Besides Corey and Simon, two other David Rosenfelt stalwarts comprise the rest of the team: the strong and usually silent Marcus Clark (who actually gets lines in these pages!); and the charismatic and competent Laurie Collins, who’s married to the very reason the K-Team first got together—the hilariously lazy but undeniably brilliant defense attorney Andy Carpenter. Corey is still struggling to form a more positive opinion of Andy, as…

Years ago he attacked me in a cross-examination when I was a cop testifying for the prosecution. He made me look foolish, and I’ve never lost my bitterness about that.

 

On the other hand, he has since represented me when I was wrongly accused of murder and brilliantly managed to keep me from going to jail for the rest of my life. And he did the entire thing, including a lengthy trial, for free.

 

Maybe I should get over my bitterness.

Filled with both Mr Rosenfelt’s trademark humor and a devastatingly diabolical criminal conspiracy, Good Dog, Bad Cop finds this spin-off series from the main Andy Carpenter books really coming into its own. A special highlight for me is the way Corey’s narrative voice is becoming even more distinct from those of the leads of Mr Rosenfelt’s other books. Corey is not as smart as Andy or even Doug Brock, the amnesiac hero of the most thriller-like of this author’s series, but he’s slowly working on becoming a better person—never a thing you could say about Andy! In fairness, Andy is already pretty great as is, even if he’s constantly playing down his own abilities.

Aside from investigation, one of Corey’s main areas for self-reflection and improvement is in his (surprisingly, to him) healthy relationship with his girlfriend Dani. Corey has never had a serious girlfriend before, but has now been dating Dani long enough to start considering their next step together:

It’s a measure of my maturity in relationships that even in my own mind I call it the M word. I know that two adults who are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together often naturally decide to M, but I’m not yet at the point where I can say the entire word.

 

I wish I had never started this reflection stuff because it’s made me realize that Dani might not want to M me if I asked. I mean, she has never brought it up, not once. Never even hinted at it. Is that normal for a woman who wants to get M..ed?

Corey’s growing maturity is as much a draw as the rest of this book’s entertaining qualities, including his devotion to the aging but still razor-sharp Simon. In line with this continuing evolution, the K-Team novels are gradually becoming as much of a must-read for me as the rest of David Rosenfelt’s excellent mysteries.