Lawyer Andy Carpenter is surprised when Willie Millier, Andy's partner at their dog rescue operation, the Tara Foundation, calls to say the alarm has gone off at the foundation building. There has clearly been a break-in, and a dog has been stolen.

All of the dogs that the Tara Foundation rescues are given collars with GPS tracking capabilities, so Andy and Willie know they'll be able to track down the missing dog. They follow the signal to a house in downtown Paterson, and sure enough, the dog is there...standing right next to a dead body. The man had been gruesomely murdered mere minutes earlier. Could it be a coincidence? Or could the dog theft somehow be connected to the killing?

Andy takes the dog safely back to the foundation building, and that should be the end of it, but his curiosity - and his desire to keep the dog from further harm - won't let him stop there. Andy finds himself looking into the circumstances surrounding the break-in and the dog theft, and what he starts to uncover makes him believe that the cops may have just arrested the wrong man for the crime.

Once again David Rosenfelt has written a fast-paced and clever mystery with his characteristic blend of humor, larger-than-life characters, and propulsive plotting.