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Open & Shut 100/250

I continue to enjoy this very much. Smart Alec lawyer main character, so sometimes he irritates the reader as well as the characters whom he meets, but not all that much.  Plot is intriguing.  His deceased father leaves him $22m.  It all comes from a single check written 30 years earlier for 2m. Dad never touched the money, never changed the investment. Two bigwigs in town (one is mall developer) are involved, and it sure likes like a shady deal.

Andy is also appealing the conviction of Willie, a convicted murderer whose defense is that he was drunk, didn't know how the girl was killed, but could never kill a woman.  Willie is attacked in prison--connected to the questions about the 22m.  Plots will somehow intertwine through the murder victim, a newspaper reporter who was on to something, no doubt about dead dad and his friends.

Spoiler coming Sub sub plot has to do with Cal, newspaper vendor, whom Andy Carpenter buys a paper from every day.  Cal tells Andy that his 16 year old daughter has been arrested for prostitution and asks Andy to take her case.  Big hearted Andy does.  In court, the 16 year old -- a tough cookie -- informs the judge that Andy is her pimp.  Uproar, investigation. Andy has been set up for humiliation by ????   Dad's former friends, presumably.

Sub sub sub plot. Andy's wife has moved back in, so he cuts off his affair with his investigator.  Reader is rooting for investigator, but she is suitably cool to Andy now that he has jilted her.  Andy's dog makes irregular appearances--I'm guessing the dog will help solve the case.

Very well written and plotted. Moves quickly, but not too quickly.

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