This twenty-seventh entry in David Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter Mystery series, “Flop Dead Gorgeous,” offers us some different views and angles than those to which we are accustomed in the earlier novels. But the factors that make Rosenfelt unique are every bit as much in evidence here as they are in every novel in the series. His uniqueness is clear and easily explained: no other mystery writer demonstrates Rosenfelt’s uncanny knack for providing us real suspense and difficult-to-solve legal issues while all the while also providing laugh-out-loud (or at the very least broad-smile-inducing) page-after-page light-hearted insult humor and self-deprecating dialogue and first-person narration.

Andy Carpenter is the brilliant, wealthy, pain-in-the-proverbial-butt defense attorney who would rather be anywhere than in his ramshackle law office preparing for a stressful murder trial or, worse yet, defending his totally innocent client in a hostile courtroom.

And in “Flop Dead Gorgeous,” there are welcome bonuses, mostly provided by the author’s well-established knowledge of “inside Hollywood” info gained when he was president of marketing at Tri-Star Pictures before his conversion to mystery authorship. We are privy to the ways Hollywood functions, and it ain’t, to say the least, a pretty picture.

The reason for the Hollywood setting is that the primary suspect in the murder case (there are several murders, of course) is Jenny Nichols, a famous and gorgeous (hence the title) movie star originally from Andy’s New Jersey home town. Andy had dated her a few times in their high school days, a fact which Andy naturally mentions to all the other characters and all the readers about 120 times through the course of the story. Andy is very proud of his high school semi-triumph. She had ultimately rejected him.

While Jenny is visiting her home town, staying in her mother’s old home, she attends a party with Andy and many of his friends and partners. The party is invaded by her Hollywood co-star and ex-boyfriend, who insists that she must leave with him. When she refuses, he is hostile and violent. This is a very obnoxious fellow. Later that night, while Jenny is sleeping, she hears a noise in the kitchen and walks back there to see what’s going on. Her ex-boyfriend is lying motionless on his side on the floor with a knife firmly stuck in his back. He’s dead. Murdered. So Jenny calls the police, but when they arrive, it seems to them that Jenny, in her panicked, paranoid state, has obviously murdered the guy. The state of the kitchen, the fight at the party, and his hostile behavior all lead them to the conclusion that perhaps they had argued, but there is no question that, excuses notwithstanding, she killed him.

From that point on, the plot expands in several mysterious and confusing directions involving several potential suspects, most of whom are villainous guys and girls — Hollywood executive types, crooked accountants, Russian mobsters, money launderers, and assorted other shady characters. But the needle of guilt still points directly at Jenny. Andy, his wife Laurie, and Jenny’s friends all know that Jenny is a sweet, generous, kind person who would never hurt anybody or anything, except perhaps Andy and his broken heart when she rejected his stab (excuse the expression) at teen-aged boyfriendhood. But the cops, the prosecutor, and probably the jury could reason that maybe, or maybe not-so-maybe, she simply lost control when confronted by her miserable ex, and in the passion of the moment stuck a kitchen knife in his back. Andy’s investigators, Laurie and her partners Marcus the superman, ex-cop Corey, and Corey’s trusted canine police dog/companion Simon (full name Simon Garfunkel), are on the case to find the real murderer, but they continually crash into brick walls.

Jenny’s trial and Andy’s defense tactics, clever as they are, seem to add up to a horror story from which Jenny cannot escape. That story leads to a very un-Andy Carpenter-like conclusion. But (trying desperately here to avoid spoilers) despite the aura of doom and the forbidding circumstances, I will assure you Carpenter fans that the ending is entirely satisfying and even emotionally rewarding. As a matter of fact, the entire court scene and its aftermath reveal facets of Andy’s character that we’ve rarely experienced before. He’s always been a real good guy deep down, but here he exhibits truly profound regrets, empathy, and heartfelt emotional reactions to the events.

Still another takeaway from the trial and pre-trial scenes is one that I have noticed before; that is, the apparent authenticity of Andy’s trial tactics, his instructions to his clients, and all the courtroom procedures and rules. Rosenfelt says that he has zero formal education regarding the law, how to be an effective lawyer, how a lawyer prepares for a trial, and what kinds of verbal strategies are most effective in actual trial conditions. Yet to a layperson (like me) Andy Carpenter’s legal brilliance seems well-grounded in lawyerly wisdom and knowledge. That apparent authenticity is an extraordinary accomplishment on the part of the author. Sometimes it seems that Rosenfelt, despite his successes as an executive and author, may have missed his true calling. He probably would have made a terrific defense attorney. Almost as superb as the inimitable Andy Carpenter himself.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.