Dog Eat Dog

New Jersey lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife Laurie are walking their dogs when they see one man trying to stop another from beating his dog. The two men fight, then the police arrive and arrest them both. Matt Jantzen, the dog’s rescuer, turns out to be wanted for a double murder in Maine. He can’t get a lawyer to take the seemingly open-and-shut case, so Andy agrees to represent Matt as a fellow dog lover. One victim was a friend of Matt’s ex-girlfriend; the other was her boyfriend, a member of an antigovernment militia who dabbled in drugs. Police say Matt’s DNA is on the victims, but he claims to know nothing about it. Andy, Laurie, and the rest of their crew of investigators have their work cut out for them exploring all the possible motives; a series of threats against them only complicates matters.