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Good Dog, Bad Cop by David Rosenfelt (ARC Review)

As always, thanks so much to Minotaur Books for letting me read another K-Team novel early! I have read all four of them and do enjoy these fast paced detective stories with at least one K-9 takedown per story 😅

Bookish Quick facts:

Title: Good Dog, Bad Cop
Series: K Team Novels #4
Author: David Rosenfelt
Publisher & Release: Minotaur Books, 03/14/23
Length: 288 pages
Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐✨ for fans of snarky detective stories

Here’s the synopsis from Am*zon:

For the K Team, playing “good dog”, “bad cop” is all fun and games… until there’s a body on the scene, in the next K Team Novel by bestselling author David Rosenfelt.

The K Team enjoys investigating cold cases for the Paterson Police Department. Corey Douglas, his K-9 partner Simon Garfunkel, Laurie Collins, and Marcus Clark even get to choose which cases they’d like to pursue. When Corey sees the latest list of possibilities, there’s no question which one to look into next.

Corey’s former mentor, Jimmy Dietrich, had his whole identity wrapped up in being a cop. When Jimmy retired three years ago, his marriage quickly deteriorated and he tried–and failed―to get back on the force. Jimmy was left to try to adjust to life as a civilian.

Not long after, two bodies were pulled from the Passaic River. A local woman, Susan Avery, and Jimmy Dietrich. With no true evidence available, the deaths went unsolved and the case declared cold. This didn’t stop the whispers: an affair gone wrong… a murder-suicide committed by Jimmy.

Corey never believed it. With this case, the K Team has the opportunity to find the real murderer, and clear Jimmy’s name. Bestselling author David Rosenfelt returns in Good Dog, Bad Cop, where there’s little to go on, but that won’t stop Paterson, New Jersey’s favorite private investigators from sniffing out the truth.

My thoughts:

I do have some mixed feelings about these books but I keep reading! Rosenfelt writes fast paced books with snarky characters that can be read in a few (or fewer 😅) sittings. They’re relatively short but I tend to be thrown off by the lack of chapter headings – that said, the finished copies may be different from the ARCs.

This story once again features the Corey and Dani relationship when they aren’t solving cases. He can’t say the word, but he is thinking about “M…ing” her now and it’s hilarious that he’s thinking about it like that.

I like the case itself. I didn’t see the answers coming at all, except for those that Rosenfelt gives us as foreshadowing. That said, my least favorite part is his bad guy “foreshadowing” chapters. He just gives us a few of the answers and then lets the detectives work back to that point, or not, but the readers know either way. I just don’t love that style and he does it in many of his books.

I also didn’t think the “big threat” in Good Dog, Bad Cop was handled well. It was presented as one big bad guy and then didn’t impact the case at all, nor did it add a lot of threat for me since no one was that worried about it. The cases that the K Team were working on were fun though and it was interesting to see the clues come together.

So…I don’t *love* these books but I keep reading because I love K9 detectives and they’re quick, fun books. I still wish Simon got more page time but I’ll always applaud when he gets to take down a bad guy.

Overall: not a perfect read but lots of fun to be had with the K Team, with appearances from Andy Carpenter. Would recommend for fans of fun detective novels with fairly high stakes and cold cases.

Thanks for checking out my book review of Good Dog, Bad Cop by David Rosenfelt. I received my early digital copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review and as always, all opinions are my own ♥️

Citizen K-9 (ARC Review) by David Rosenfelt

Minotaur Books has been amazing to me recently, and I thank them for the advanced copy of Citizen K-9 by David Rosenfelt! This is a spin-off from his ANDY CARPENTER series which explains a few of the apparent character cameos and references made. Since I haven’t read any of those books (or the first two in THE K TEAM series) I will treat this as a standalone!

K-9 cops, suspense, cold cases, let’s go!

Bookish Quick Facts:

Title: Citizen K-9
Series: The K Team – #3
Author: David Rosenfelt
Publisher & Release: Minotaur Books, 03/15/22
Length: 265 pages
Rate & Recommend: ⭐⭐⭐⚡ for fans of quick reading, lighter & more humorous PI / procedural type books

Here is the synopsis (from GoodReads):

In Citizen K-9, bestselling author David Rosenfelt masterfully blends mystery with dogs and humor to create an investigative team that readers will be rooting for book after book.

The Paterson Police Department has created a cold case division, and they want to hire the private investigators known as the K Team to look into the crimes. After all, Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, German shepherd Simon Garfunkel, recently retired from the force. Plus, another K Team member, Laurie Collins, used to be a cop as well.

Their first cold case hits home for the K Team. A decade ago, at Laurie’s tenth high school reunion, two of their friends simply… vanished. At the time Laurie had just left the force, and Corey was in a different department, so they had no choice but to watch from the sidelines. With no leads, the case went cold.

As the team starts to delve deeper into the events leading up to that night—reopening old wounds along the way—the pieces start to come together. But someone wants to stop them from uncovering the truth behind the disappearance, by any means necessary.

Overall, I liked this one! It was a very quick read with lots of action and humor to keep it interesting. I thought it was cool to see the (retired) police dog in action even though I definitely wanted more page time for Simon.

I’ll go back and read the first two novels to see what other exploits he has had – it’s so easy to root for a K-9.

I liked the characters too. Corey is a little cut and dry at times but it was not a bad first person POV at all. Marcus was hilarious with his little quirk, and I liked Andy’s cameos. Laurie didn’t get a ton of page time and I would have liked to see a little more from her too, even if Corey and Simon were the main duo.

The case itself was interesting too. I like cold cases.

I had a few minor issues like how the author would interrupt action scenes for commentary and side jokes. Especially in the first person POV where we are seeing a dangerous scene from someone’s eyes, just let the scene finish then talk about it. I wouldn’t expect a retired cop in real time to pause and joke about their word choice in the middle of disarming some dangerous men. Also some of the analysis got repetitive when they weren’t coming up with any new information.

I expected action from both dogs on the cover although now I know that the golden retriever was the main Canine character from the ANDY CARPENTER series and probably already had her time in the spotlight.

This one 100% works as a standalone. I would probably recommend starting the series from the beginning, just to have more time with The K Team, but there’s no reason not to read it by itself either!

Free Copy received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own!