Hoax : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Reconciliation ??
Review: As other reviewers have picked up on, Hoax is not close to the standards Tanenbaum and Gruber set for most of the other novels. The characters are wooden and the great dialog which both defined the characters and drove the plots of the previous novels, is seriously lacking. Pages and pages of philosophical ruminations . . . Ugh!! The lowlite is the cliff scene where Lucy is rescued at the last second by Hopalong Cassidy --- I laughed out loud. Having read Gruber's first book under his own name, and been happy with his writing but less than enamored with the plotting, I would hope these two get back together. Like many duos, they're much better than the sum of their parts.

Rating:
Summary: Scandal and murder-church and police conspiracy
Review: I enjoyed this novel but found it a long read. It has a good plot involving corruption in the NYPD and the Catholic church, good villains in Kane, the aspiring Mayor of New York, and corrupt cops and priests who are beholden to him. New York District Attorney Butch Karp and his wife Marlene have a complicated relationship. For much of the novel Marlene and their daughter are off at a retreat in New Mexico attempting to chase away the "demons" that haunt them. There they become embroiled in the search for missing Navaho kids who turn up murdered. This subplot is linked back to murdered children in New York, some found with rosaries tossed on their bodies before they were buried. The novel starts with the murder of a LA rapper in a New York club which is initially attributed to another young rapper who had done prison time previously. As the plot unfolds, Butch Karp comes to realize that things are not what they seem. The accused young rapper possesses secret files on police and priest crimes and coverups which threaten the church hierarchy and the campaign of mayoralty candidate Kane.

This novel could have been tightened up with fewer flashbacks and less introspection.

Rating:
Summary: a Milli Vanilli experience
Review: I have been a faithful and devoted reader of Tanenbaum's books for a long time. He was the one thriller writer whose books I would pounce on and buy (or beg or borrow or steal) without even bothering to read the blurb on the inside flap.

Imagine my surprise when I started reading this newest Tanenbaum, only to discover that it was, apparently, a counterfeit. Within a few pages I had the eerie sensation that though the characters had familiar names, they were simply not the same people I had come to know and love. And the style! Yikes! One of the great pleasure of a Tanenbaum novel has always been the clever repartee, the tongue-in-cheek wit, the terrific use of irony. Lo and behold, all had disappeared from sight. Instead, what I found was clumsy and--dare I say it--amateurish writing that should never have seen the light of day. Marlene, my all-time favorite character in any thriller, has turned from a stylish, smart, sassy New Yorker to a rather boring and wooden two-dimensional parody of herself. Butch is reduced to maundering about the past. The kids are mere shadows of their former selves, and the plotting, sequencing, and dialogue are not worthy of a high-school creative writing class.

So I quickly concluded that Tanenbaum must have hired a ghost to churn this one out. Then I learned from the Internet, to my horror, that all the wit and pizzazz of the earlier books had been due to the REAL writer, Michael Gruber, who had a parting of the ways with the fake writer, whose only claim to fame is that his name is in fact Robert Tanenbaum. He may be a decent lawyer, I don't know, but he is no writer. So the problem is not that Tanenbaum HIRED a ghost, it's that the real writer of the old Tanenbaums finally came to his senses and struck out on his own.
Wow. I feel betrayed. This is SO Milli Vanilli. Don't buy this book unless you are teaching a class in creative writing and ethics and need an example of how NOT to do things. Otherwise, just figure that Butch and Marlene and Lucy and Zak and Giancarlo and Guma and all the other wonderful, complex, brilliant characters died on 9/11. Mourn their loss, and then start reading Gruber's books.

Rating:
Summary: Needs more editing
Review: I love Butch and Marlene and find the descriptions of their personal struggles beneficial. I also marvel that things written in this story could indeed depict true life. However, I was disappointed in several misspellings and a BIG mistake. The children weren't eaten by bears because they made fun of Job--wrong Biblical character. Tanenbaum's editors let him down especially in light of all the religious interweavings of this story. I did like the book though.

Rating:
Summary: Underrated
Review: I must admit that I let the reviews on this book in this forum influence me. It was a real mistake, which prompts me to send this review. I found this book every bit as good as its predecessors. In fact, I liked it much better than the last book in the Karp series. I found the characters of the Karp family little changed, but the addition of the female Karp family out west and the strong Indian police chief adding to the more usual New York scene. While it seems to be the norm to rank on the Catholic Church and pedofile priests, it is done in a serial killer kind of way that makes the fact that there is a cover-up going on less important than the innocent victims. I really can't see why people who reviewed this book found it lacking because I've read them all without finding this book any less effective.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book; don't understand the sour reviews
Review: I too have read most of the Karp series by this author, although I was surprised to learn from other readers that Tanenbaum may not have been responsible for all of the outstanding writing of past novels. Even though I have followed and know much of the family character history as it developed through the series, I don't find the followups in this book to be in any way annoying (though the part about Tran was questionable seeing as how he played a big part in previous stories). This story was relevant to the times, had a good plot that was standard in that it tied in Karp's cases with Marlene's - it happens in every book!!!

My only problem may have been the ending where everything tied together by story telling and not letting the reader engage in the action. The end sort of just happened - though I have to admit that all loose ends were tied up and didn't end with a bad feelings or a cliffhanger making the reader feel there was no closure.

I enjoyed the book and look forward to more books (maybe concentrating more about Marlene). The part at the kitchen table with the drink in one hand and a gun in the other was great.

Rating:
Summary: Hoax : A Novel (Tanenbaum, Robert)
Review: In my opinion this book ranks with the best in the series. I am as mystified by the hatchet job in the first review as I am by Amazon's decision to lead with it. A huge fan of the series, I have read all of the books in it. It is the colorful characters, rich descriptive narrative and the insight into big city prosecutorial law which attract me more than the plot, which is more than adequate. This is a great read and I eagerly look forward to the next adventure of the Karp/Ciampi clan.

Rating:
Summary: LONG BOOK, BUT GREAT
Review: This is one of the longest of the Butch Karp novels. But it was well worth the read. Covered several different crimes, but tied it all together by the end of the book. This book gets an A on my list. GREAT JOB.


Rating:
Summary: A Well Told Story
Review: This was my first reading of a Tanenbaum novel, so I have none of the historical (or hysterical) perspective of other reviewers who have read all or most of the novels that preceeded this one. Simply put, I enjoyed the book. I found the plotting of the book along with the flash backs to explain previous action to be interesting and helpful and with so many previous books in the series, some explanation of the history of the characters is necessary for a first time reader. The depth of the plotting against the establishment and the Roman Catholic church requires some straining of credulity, but once you get in the mood of the story, it just flows along nicely. Worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Okay, a hoax, I get it!
Review: Those in the know have known for a long time that the real talent behind Tanenbaum's Butch Karp books has been Michael Gruber. Like many of the reviewers here I knew that Gruber had gone out on his own after a split with Tanenbaum, and like them I was willing to give the name on the cover a chance to prove his own talent. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed. From the first page it is abundantly clear that the style has suffered, and Butch Karp has hit the skids. The question is now, did Tanenbaum do any of the writing or plotting of the early Karp novels, or is he only a front man? The quick answer may indeed be, yes.

Butch and his vigilanty wife have slowly become annoying, cloying and just too predictable. It is time to put them away and explore new fields, "Hoax" has rung the death knell for a once interesting pair of characters and plots that made sense and writing that galluped with tension and drama.

"Hoax", as the title, is obviously a pun. The Karp series has been a gigantic "hoax" and now the truth is revealed. To be sure, do what I did and check out Michael Gruber's first novel with his name on the cover, "Trpic of Night", and you'll get the joke. Gruber was the masyermind, the talent - the "writer" all along. For the same kind of former great read just look for a different name on the cover and a new, more vibrant hero named, Paz.

Tanenbaum, Karp, etal are history and that is too bad we say good bye to an old friend and hello to a new, more interesting series by the true master, Michael Gruber.