Outfoxed

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Last week, I talked about how difficult it is to come up with things to talk about with a long-running series like the Walt Longmire books – at a certain point, series like that hit a good stride and only vary a little in quality or interest for readers. Well, the Andy Carpenter series is even longer and more difficult to write about. I don't know if I can do much, but I'll try.

This time out, Andy has inherited a client already in prison, he's basically supposed to deal with routine things and be ready to help him at the end of his sentence. This is made easier in that the client, Brian Atkins, is working with a dog training program that the Tara Foundation has going with the minimum security prison he's in.

But then he breaks out of prison and is found leaving the scene of the murder of his estranged wife and his former partner.

But it's so much bigger than just this (really, the case doesn't seem as difficult as many of his – finding the actual killer is, but not the case) – Andy's going to find himself at odds with one of the most dangerous foes he's tangled with. Speaking of easy, I sort of think that everything ended a bit too easily, a bit too pat – I'm not sure how doing what they did really keeps Andy and his family safe.

I was wondering how Andy and Laurie were going to deal with juggling parenting and these cases, and man, do I hope they come up with better ways than this one. It works once, but not twice. I liked the little bit of fathering we get to see from Andy, though, and Ricky seems like he can be a decent addition to the series.

I don't want to sound like I'm down on this book – or this series. It was a whole lotta fun, a nice puzzle, and watching the pieces fall into place was pretty satisfying. If you're not reading these books, you're missing out.