Book ~ "Play Dead" (2007) David Rosenfelt

From Goodreads ~ Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter's affection for golden retrievers, especially his own beloved Tara. 

After he astonishes a New Jersey courtroom by successfully appealing another golden's death sentence, Andy discovers that this gentle dog is a key witness to a murder that took place five years before. 

Andy pushes the boundaries of the law even further as he struggles to free an innocent man by convincing an incredulous jury to take canine testimony seriously. It will take all the tricks Andy's fertile mind can conceive to get to the bottom of a remarkable chain of impersonations and murder, and save a dog's life - and his own - in the process.

Andy is a lawyer.  Though the dog rescue that he and his former client, Willie, have opened, he comes across a golden retriever named Yogi who is supposed to be put down.  Because he has a golden retriever named Tara which he love love loves, he is determined to save Yogi.  He is successful but this leads him to defend Richard, the owner of Yogi.

Richard has been in prison for five years for murdering his fiancée ... until now, it was believed that he had also killed his beloved dog.  Richard lost everything when he went to prison ... his fiancée, his job and his freedom.  It's up to Andy, with the help of Karen, Richard's loyal sister, and his team of Sam, Kevin and Marcus, to fix this wrong.

This is the sixth book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it.  I liked the writing style as it was funny, sarcastic and amusing.  It was written in first person perspective in Andy's voice.  It is the sixth in the Andy Carpenter series (and the sixth I've read) and it works as a stand alone (so you don't need to have read the first one to know what is going on).

I like Andy and it was good to see him back in the courtroom, where he belongs.  He's smart and shifty and recognizes his weaknesses ,,, he acknowledges that he's a coward.  He loves his dog, Tara, and thinks she's the most wonderful dog in the whole wide world.  Andy's team is made up of Kevin, his hypochondriac associate who also owns/runs a laundramat, Sam, his accountant who is also a computer hacker, and Marcus, an investigator with persuasive reasoning skills.  He calls in favours from his friends, Vince, the editor of the local newspaper, and Pete, a local police officer.