Dog Tags

When a decorated military working dog witnesses a murder and his owner—a troubled Iraq War veteran—is charged with the crime, the dog's fate hangs in the balance alongside his handler's. Andy Carpenter, a defense attorney who has never met a dog he didn't want to save, takes the case with characteristic reluctance and characteristic passion. What begins as a seemingly straightforward wrongful conviction story quickly reveals layers of conspiracy that stretch far beyond a single crime scene, raising the stakes for everyone involved—including a city that doesn't yet know it's in danger.

David Rosenfelt has built the Andy Carpenter series on a winning formula: sharp courtroom procedural, genuine thriller plotting, and a narrator whose dry wit makes even the tensest moments enjoyable to read. Dog Tags earns its place in the series by pairing that wit with something more emotionally grounded—the bond between soldiers and their dogs, and what loyalty looks like when it costs everything. Rosenfelt's prose is clean and propulsive, the pacing rarely stumbles, and Andy's voice makes the pages turn faster than you expect.