Best in Snow is the 24th (!!!) Andy Carpenter legal procedural mystery by David Rosenfelt. Due out 16th Oct 2021 from Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately; it makes it so easy to find information with the search function.
This is a holiday themed, dog filled, legal procedural murder mystery and very much in the vein of the other books in the series. It's an ensemble cast and it's always a lot of fun to see how much work office manager Edna can avoid, how long it'll take Andy to figure out exactly what's going on, and how many burgers, beers, and fries his friends Vince and Pete can get him to buy at their regular sports bar, Charlie's.
I can't think of many series which continue to be genuinely funny, genuinely warm, not derivative, and so cleverly plotted as the Carpenter mysteries. The author is on my must-read list and I really enjoyed this installment very much. It's exciting and tightly plotted but not too graphic. There is no sexual content (excepting the occasional sweetly goofy double entendres between Andy and his wife, Lorie). The language is mostly clean (PG rated). The characters are very well delineated at this point and it feels like they live and breathe. Although it's the 24th book in the series, it works perfectly well as a standalone and would make a good entry into the series as a whole.
The audiobook has a run time of 6 hours and 51 minutes and is expertly narrated by Grover Gardner who manages to juggle the various local accents and characters of all ages and both sexes without problems. I found myself grinning and laughing along several places with the wonderful narration. The read was definitely enhanced by the narrator. I especially loved his interpretation of Vince and Pete (Andy's best buddies). The sound and production quality are high throughout the recording.
Five stars for both the text and audiobook versions. All around fun read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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