David Rosenfelt

Background

David Rosenfelt was born in 1949 in Paterson, New Jersey. In his childhood days, he was just normal like any other child. He was born as the second child among the 3 brothers and was loved by his parents very much. He was born in a middle-class home and used to love playing different kind of sports other than his regular studies. David had spent his childhood days in a happy environment.

Education

After finishing his school, David Rosenfelt joined New York University and graduated with a degree in business administration.

Career

David is particularly famous for writing novels based on the life of the fictional character named Andy Carpenter, who has been described by him as a dog loves and an attorney by profession. David has compiled a total of thirteen novels in the Andy Carpenter series and has also written a few other standalone novels as well. Apart from writing novels, David has also written stories for TV movies.

At the beginning of his career, David had decided to work in the movie business after his graduation. He worked his way to the corporate culture with the help of his uncle who interviewed him being the President of the United Artists. Later on, David became the marketing president of the company Tri-Star Pictures. After a few years in the film industry, he left it in order to try something more interesting in his life. Eventually, he began to write screenplays for television and movies. However, David received his name and fame by writing novels.

During one point of his corporate career, David had worked with lawyers and this helped him to sketch the characteristics of the main protagonist of his novel series, Andy Carpenter. David’s style of writing novels resembles the screenplays of the movies and television shows as they typically contain around 300 pages with some 40 odd scenes and 15 basic beats.

David says that he had no plans of becoming an author and had never predicted that he would begin to love dogs so much.

After his graduation from New York University with a degree in business administration, he hoped to get a job in the corporate world. Eventually, he got hired on the basis of a brilliant interview and worked his way up to become the President of Marketing of the Tri-Star Pictures. In the meanwhile, David married and got blessed with a couple of children. After that, David left the movie marketing business and decided to try his hand at writing. In the beginning, he tried to write a few feature films which did not receive any takers. Then he began writing a few TV movies, which brought him a little success but was not considerable enough to what was he was hoping for. As a result, David finally decided to change his course to novel writing.

With the success of the initial novels that he wrote, David gained confidence and since then, he has never stopped. Every year, he writes and published at least one novel that keeps the faith of his fans in him intact. David and his wife founded the Tara Foundation in the memory of their Golden Retriever. With the help of this organization, David constantly strives to rescue the dogs and helps them to find loving homes. He himself gave shelter for a couple of dozen of stray dogs that needed medical attention and a caring environment. His closeness to these pet animals is what inspires him to write his novels. David has made it a habit to write most of his novels with the dogs as the secondary characters, who help the protagonists in many ways.

The novel series was written by David Rosenfelt, Andy Carpenter Series, feature 13 novels published between the years 2002 and 2015. The series is based on the life of the central character named Andy Carpenter, who is described as an animal lover, who is famous for saving humans and dogs from Death Row. He has a golden retriever named Tara, who helps him to solve the cases and with the courtroom battles as an attorney. The first novel of the series was titled "Open and Shut", which was published in the year 2002 by the Grand Central Publishing. The novel opens with the introduction of Andy Carpenter as an attorney who has the habit of dealing with the forensics and the boys’ network with his witty nature and excellent game plans.

The novel was so successful that it was nominated for the Shamus Award in the year 2003 in the Best First PI Novel category. The novel was also nominated for the Edgar Award in the category of Best First Novel in the same year.

The second novel of the series was titled ‘First Degree’ and was published in the year 2004 by the Grand Central Publishing. The novel continues with the life of attorney Andy Carpenter, who strives hard to solve the cases that come to him and serve justice in the best manner possible. In this novel, Andy comes across the love of his life, Private Investigator Laurie Collins, who gets framed for murdering a cop. Andy is required to save her from getting convicted of the crime that she had not committed. This novel also became quite successful and encouraged David to continue with his hobby of writing thriller novels.

David Rosenfelt did a great job in the other novels of the series, as expected by him, which further increased his popularity as an established author.

Achievements

• David Rosenfelt's major achievement is in becoming one of the most popular and well-red American authors, as well as an animal rescuer helping to save abandoned dogs through his Foundation.
  
  His novel "Bury the Lead", was published in Mysterious Press and was a "Today show Book Club Pick". His novel "First Degree" won raves from national publications, including "Entertainment Weekly", and starred reviews from both "Kirkus Reviews" and "Publishers Weekly". The author's debut novel "Open and Shut" was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was praised in the "New York Times".
  
  Also, an avid animal lover, Rosenfelt created the Tara Foundation, a charitable organization which has rescued more than 4,000 dogs.

Works

More photos

• book

  • First Degree

    (No one can separate defense attorney Andy Carpenter from ...)

    2003
  • On Borrowed Time

    (What if it were possible that your most cherished memorie...)

    2011
  • Unleashed

    (Andy Carpenter's accountant, Sam Willis, is stunned to re...)

    2013
  • Hounded

    (Andy Carpenter isn't sure what to think when he gets a my...)

    2014
  • Open and Shut

    (Whether dueling with new forensics or the local old boys'...)

    2002
  • Dog Tags

    (A German Shepherd police dog witnesses a murder and if hi...)

    2010
  • Airtight

    (Judge Daniel Brennan is only days away from achieving a s...)

    2013
  • Rescued

    (Even the most fervent fans of the sardonic Andy Carpenter...)

    2018
  • Outfoxed

    (Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter spends as much time as he c...)

    2016
  • Lessons from Tara

    (Many also got to know Tara from Dogtripping, David’s nonf...)

    2015
  • Dogtripping

    (When mystery writer David Rosenfelt and his family moved ...)

    2013
  • Fade to Black

    (A policeman Doug Brock helps a fellow victim of amnesia u...)

    2018
  • One Dog Night

    (For six years Noah Galloway has lived with a horrible sec...)

    2011
  • Collared

    (Lawyer Andy Carpenter’s true passion is the Tara Foundati...)

    2017
  • Dead Center

    (After Laurie Collins left him and headed west, New Jersey...)

    2006
  • Who Let the Dog Out?

    (Andy Carpenter's true passion is the Tara Foundation, the...)

    2015
  • Black and Blue

    (Doug Brock hasn't had it easy since his getting shot in t...)

    2019
  • Deck the Hounds

    (Soon after Andy’s encounter with them, man and dog are at...)

    2018
  • Play Dead

    (Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter's affection for gol...)

    2007
  • Blackout

    (New Jersey state police officer Doug Brock has been after...)

    2016
  • The K Team

    (Andy's wife forms an investigative team with a former det...)

  • New Tricks

    (Andy Carpenter gains possession of an adorable Bernese pu...)

    2009
  • Heart of a Killer

    (Jamie Wagner is a young lawyer who is happy to be flying ...)

    2012
  • The Twelve Dogs of Christmas

    (Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter usually tries to avoid taki...)

    2017
  • Dachshund Through the Snow

    (Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, have started ...)

    2019
  • Down to the Wirer

    (A reporter for the Bergen News, Chris Turley could never ...)

    2010
  • Leader of the Pack

    (Over the course of his legal career, Andy Carpenter has l...)

    2012
  • Don't Tell a Soul

    (Tim Wallace's wife died in a boating accident several mon...)

    2008
  • Bury the Lead

    (Andy Carpenter thinks he's facing a midlife crisis. When ...)

    2004
  • Sudden Death 2005

Views

Rosenfelt's novels frequently feature dogs, showing his love for the dogs.

Quotations: “What I really like is when people write and tell me that because of what they’ve read in the books, they’ve gone out and rescued a senior dog or something like that. That’s really cool.”

“When you have two dogs, getting a third is a big deal,” said Rosenfelt, 64. “But when you have 26 and you get a call saying that a golden (retriever) is going to be put down at 3 o’clock, you take a 27th.”

Personality

Rosenfelt, a dog lover and who worked with many lawyers in his occupation, created a character, Andy Carpenter, an attorney who faces corporate cultures and who is a dog lover. David said once about his dog obsession: "I’m much more of a dog lunatic than an expert. You’d be amazed how little I know about dogs, and certainly nothing about breeds."

Interests

• dogs

Connections

When Rosenfelt and Myers met over 20 years ago, they each had a pet. When Myers lost her golden retriever to cancer, a friend advised her to get her next dog from a shelter – not a breeder. Thus began the couple’s long love affair with abandoned dogs. Through their Tara Foundation, Rosenfelt and Myers have placed nearly 4,000 dogs in homes. Most of the dogs are from Los Angeles County, although one came from a shelter in Louisville, Kentucky.

Wife:

Debbie Myers

References

• David Rosenfelt: Dog Tripping
  2013
• The Official Site of Author David Rosenfelt