True Justice

Rating:
Summary: Great listen!
Review: This was one of the best audio books (unabridged, of course!) I have "read"....and I am addicted to books on tape. The reader, Nick Sullivan, did a wonderful job of "creating" the characters. I am sure that his expression and delivery truly enhanced the story, which was good. I really liked the little "legal sidebars" commentary of the author. And I wonder if it would have been a bit much to read without the benefit of his delivery. This was an excellent introduction to Tanenbaum's characters and story line. I will read more, and for sure, I will look for books read by Nick Sullivan.

Rating:
Summary: Smart, Intelligent..but kinda boring.
Review: True Justice

I have no doubt that Robert K. Tanebaum is excellent, no...magnificent litigator. And if I was in trouble I would want him fighting for me. This is a man who has thought seriously about his professions. And his books are excellent manuals on the state of our criminal justice system. You pick up one his books and you have a pretty complete discussion on some of the hardest and least understood issues of our time. I would imagine he is an excellent teacher....

I have only read two of his books....listened actually to Chivers (now BBC) unabridged recordings...and my problem with his writing might be exacerbated by the reader, who is not a bad voice for Butch, but has certain problems with characterizations with Lucy and Marlene. (this being said, a lot of male and female narrators have these particular problems, and it would seem that the only one who has really conquered it is the overworked George Guidall.) True Justice, stands out because of the author's experience with the Amy Grossberg case, he represented the mother in a classic case of prosecutorial overkill in the charging of the two young people involved with the death and disposal of their son shortly after his birth. In this book he has an opportunity denied him when the defendants plead out, by stating his case for sanity when looking at these tragic cases of infanticide. This issue has been demagogued to death, a hot button topic which sets shallow social critics mouth a flapping on how rotten kids are today. Tanebaum takes several examples of various neonate deaths, and illustrates that each case has a heartbreaking tragedy behind it, and rather project monsterhood on mothers who kill their children, he paints a picture which is pathetic and without the heart pumping sensation which titilates addicts of talk shows. The result is not a bleeding heart diatribe but look at the politicization of the courts, prosecutions, and the exploitation of the most private of tragedies.

As an advocate, Tanebaum is dead on as his hits his various targets, however as a novelist he has a long way to go. Like most the attorney writers, he gives great speeches but his ear for how normal people talk is...flawed. Each of his characters do great monologues on their various points of view, but sound strangely stilted....witty, dry....but without humor, or awareness of how utterly pompous they sound when they step up to mike and speak their lines.

Tanebaum is a prolific writer with a good mind, and great range on a lot of issues. He is a social critic, an advocate for the law, and has created a very compelling series which through the mouths of his disparate characters is able to state several points of view in a persuasive and compelling manner. He could be a really great novelist if he could stop for moment and attempt to listen to and capture how people actually talk.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Revenge...
Review: True Justice

I have no doubt that Robert K. Tanebaum is excellent, no...magnificent litigator. And if I was in trouble I would want him fighting for me. This is a man who has thought seriously about his professions. And his books are excellent manuals on the state of our criminal justice system. You pick up one his books and you have a pretty complete discussion on some of the hardest and least understood issues of our time. I would imagine he is an excellent teacher....

I have only read two of his books....listened actually to Chivers (now BBC) unabridged recordings...and my problem with his writing might be exacerbated by the reader, who is not a bad voice for Butch, but has certain problems with characterizations with Lucy and Marlene. (this being said, a lot of male and female narrators have these particular problems, and it would seem that the only one who has really conquered it is the overworked George Guidall.) True Justice, stands out because of the author's experience with the Amy Grossberg case, he represented the mother in a classic case of prosecutorial overkill in the charging of the two young people involved with the death and disposal of their son shortly after his birth. In this book he has an opportunity denied him when the defendants plead out, by stating his case for sanity when looking at these tragic cases of infanticide. This issue has been demagogued to death, a hot button topic which sets shallow social critics mouth a flapping on how rotten kids are today. Tanebaum takes several examples of various neonate deaths, and illustrates that each case has a heartbreaking tragedy behind it, and rather project monsterhood on mothers who kill their children, he paints a picture which is pathetic and without the heart pumping sensation which titilates addicts of talk shows. The result is not a bleeding heart diatribe but look at the politicization of the courts, prosecutions, and the exploitation of the most private of tragedies.

As an advocate, Tanebaum is dead on as his hits his various targets, however as a novelist he has a long way to go. Like most the attorney writers, he gives great speeches but his ear for how normal people talk is...flawed. Each of his characters do great monologues on their various points of view, but sound strangely stilted....witty, dry....but without humor, or awareness of how utterly pompous they sound when they step up to mike and speak their lines.

Tanebaum is a prolific writer with a good mind, and great range on a lot of issues. He is a social critic, an advocate for the law, and has created a very compelling series which through the mouths of his disparate characters is able to state several points of view in a persuasive and compelling manner. He could be a really great novelist if he could stop for moment and attempt to listen to and capture how people actually talk.

Rating:
Summary: True Justice is Neither
Review: What do you get when you are a lawyer who has lost a high profile case and then decides to write a tirade against the "idiots" who put his defendant in that position in the first place (the state, the prosecution, the police, but never the defendent), and then try to change some of the tirade to include some dialogue? You get Tanenbaum's newest book, True Justice. The story of infant deaths in New York and Delaware (low and behold, Tanenbaum's lost real world case was in Delaware), too-young and too-stupid mothers, and the complacency of the law. Well what we have here folks is something to not waste your money on. Buy something else. His characters are two-dimensional, his plot (oh, you need a plot) thin, his dialogue unrealistic. His characters are all cynics and only think of the political side of their jobs. Get real, this is just an excuse for why he lost his case, and he expects us to pay for it.