David Rosenfelt returns with his hero, Andy Carpenter. DEAD CENTER finds Andy Carpenter reentering the dating scene with comic results. Then one day he returns to the office to find his former girlfriend Laurie waiting for him. Laurie has arrested a young man for murder and, though the evidence clearly called for his arrest, she believes he is innocent. The accused is the son of Laurie's oldest friend and she believes Andy is the best person to represent him. So Andy follows Laurie back to Wisconsin where he must explore a secretive religious community that seems to hold the truth about what really happened to the deceased.