The Twelve Dogs of Christmas: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt

Andy is a lawyer but he doesn't want to be.  He avoids taking new cases.  But when a dear friend of his who rescues puppies by fostering them is accused of having too many animals, he can't let her down.  He couldn't say no but I bet he was wishing he could before the end.

Minotaur Books and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published so you can grab a copy now.

It seems someone is setting "Pups" up.  She is a widow and owns a lot of land in a lot of different places.  Her husband acquired it and he didn't want to sell, so she's not going to sell either.  Someone wants a piece of that land and will do anything to get it.  When the man who turned her in gets shot, she's accused of killing him.  They found the gun in her basement.  It's also the gun that killed her husband and the man he was talking to.  She says it's not hers.  The prosecutor doesn't believe her.

Andy has quite a job ahead of him.  Defending her for rescuing puppies is one thing; defending her on a murder charge is something else.

You have politicians, gang members, an assassin, and more all messed up in a big game of greed.  The man killed next to Pups' husband was a gang member.  His brother wants revenge.  Whenever big sums of money are around, you have greed to contend with.  Pups doesn't care about the money.  She's leaving it to rescue organizations.  Someone is willing to kill to keep that from happening.

Will Andy figure out who it is in time?  Pups has cancer and is dying, so he doesn't have much time.  He's going to try...