Act of Revenge

Rating:
Summary: Lots of action
Review: "Act of Revenge" finds Assistant District Attorney Butch Karp, his security specialist wife Marlene Ciampri, and their teenage language prodigy daughter Lucy all tangled in a web of Chinese and Italian organized crime machinations. Butch and Marlene are involved in different Mafia-related investigations; meanwhile, Lucy - who enjoys more personal freedom than any young adolescent outside of literature intended for that age group - has witnessed a killing in Chinatown and is now a target herself. Fans of the series will be interested in Lucy's evolving relationship with her parents as she grows older. I seem to be working my way through this series backwards, so I can't compare this book to previous installments, but I can say that it is primarily action-oriented and lacks the sort of compelling issues that were at the center of "True Justice" (the book that followed in the series). I was also disappointed at the extent to which the story's resolution is achieved through lucky coincidence rather than investigation.

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Summary: Butch and Marlene head NY's best dysfunctional family.
Review: After a slow start, involving young Lucy Karp, her rather silly friends, and a doctor in a genius lab, the latest addition to the wonderful Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series, kicks into high gear. I love all the characters from the mysterious Tran, to the long dead but pivotal, Jerry Fein, to the self righteous Columbo (no relation to the Peter Falk creation or the NY crime family). Tannenbaum is a master at tying the plots of organized crime, a woman's shelter, a sad pre-teen, and a bag lady, and making it all delightful and plausible. I'm looking forward to the next in this great series.

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Summary: Love the characters but does anyone really get the plot?
Review: For loyal followers of Marlene Ciampi and Butch Karp, their children, and their assembled extended family of misfits and Vietnamese assasins, this book is definitely a great read. I love the fact that the characters are getting older, and the events are moving ahead in time. And the author has a great feel for kids and their developmental issues - the 4 year old twins sound and act their age, and Lucy is really a pretty fascinating adolescent - given her incredible brain and kooky mom. I love the dynamics of her relationship with her mom and dad, and the descriptions of how they deal with their own angst of raising a teenager. It was a page turner, and I couldn't put it down, but I must admit some of the thickness of the plots just goes over my head sometimes. If anyone can explain all of what's going on with the assorted Italian and Asian undeworld, please let me know!!

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Summary: Another great Kirkus Review for Bob Tanenbaum's Butch Karp
Review: From Kirkus: Fasten your seat belts for the bumpiest ride in Butch Karp's long career with the New York D.A.'s office: a case that expands till it gobbles up his wife and daughter. Butch's latest briefis the execution of Salvatore Bollano capo regime Eddie Catalano, whose rival Joe Pigetti, the obvious candidate for pulling off the hit, has an alibi this wide. While Butch duels with US Attorney Thomas Colombo over who talks to whom about what with which guarantees,his wife, domestic-abuse-vigilante Marlene Ciampi, is busy with her own nest of hornets far from the usual turf of her security agency: the widow of Jumping Jerry Fein, who dived from the observation deck of the Empire State Building 20 years ago, suddenly wants the case reopened. (Why now? wonders Marlene. And why do so many people object?) Busiest of all, though, is Butch and Marlene's daughter Lucy, 12, who was witness to a murder at the Asia Mall. Now the shooter is very interested in Lucy and the two friends who were with her, Mary Ma and Asia Mall offspring Janice Chen. In real life, or in Tanenbaum's last novel (Irresistible Impulse, 1997), these three cases would never come within a mile of each other; here, they're wound together tightly enough to make most readers beg for Motrin. As usual, Tanenbaum pulls off a hundred effective scenes in a dozen different tones-his affection for Butch's knockabout, have-it-all family is neatly balanced by his brisk malice in showing them and their legion of well-armed allies facing down killers and kidnappers and TV hosts-but the mind-boggling plot, which Marlene compares to an Elizabethan revenge tragedy even while complications are still getting phoned in, drowns in double-crosses, legal maneuvers, and killings. And it's no surprise when the climax shows Marlene under deadly attack by two parties who don't even know of each other's existence. It all adds up to too much of a very good thing indeed.

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Summary: Karps quirky extended family provides enough depth for years
Review: From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly: Veteran authorTanenbaum (Reckless Endangerment, Irresistible Impulse etc.) pens alethal family outing for series protagonist Butch Karp, his vigilante wife, Marlene Ciampi, and their linguistic prodigy daughter, Lucy, in this take-no-prisoners tale of mob violence, Asian incursion and political corruption that spans decades. All become embroiled in a labyrinth of interconnected plot lines and intersecting lives during an Asian gangsters plan to take over Italian mob turf in Little Italy next to Chinatown. Chief Assistant District Attorney Karps team is stumped when the usual mob suspects dont pan out in the killing of Eddie Catalano, a capo for Big Sally Bollano, don of the Mafia crime family, but he has bigger problems when two Hong Kong triad biggies are murdered in Chinatown. Karps daughter, Lucy, witnesses the killings, but refuses to talk because it would endanger the Chinese family she grew up with... The closed society of Chinatown proves a formidable barrier to police probes and only Lucy and Tran can make headway and flush the killer when attacks on the Karp family get starkly personal. Former New York City homicide chief and trial attorney Tanenbaum has crafted a believably twisted gem of a gangster tale with visceral action and smooth comic relief in a technicolor, Big Apple setting that waxes nostalgic for the gentleman killers of yesteryear. Lucy is an engaging adolescent addition and Karps quirky extended family provides enough depth for years of sequels. (May)

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have always looked forward to Mr. Tanenbaum's novels. This one is a disappointment: Slow, too much trivia even though one expects and even looks forward to some about Butch, Marlene, Lucy, and Tran. Admittedly, though, I am only a third of the way through the book. If I change my mind when finished, I shall say so.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have always looked forward to Mr. Tanenbaum's novels. This one is a disappointment: Slow, too much trivia even though one expects and even looks forward to some about Butch, Marlene, Lucy, and Tran. Admittedly, though, I am only a third of the way through the book. If I change my mind when finished, I shall say so.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time.
Review: I realize that this was fiction, but it must be somewhat believable. The little 12 year old girl speaking all of the different languages got to be a little much. I also had to constantly turn back in the book to keep up with the characters. I still could not understand how one of the character's father, Jerry Fein committed suicide in 1960 and in the book relates to that as being 23 years ago. I just couldn't find where the story was supposed to be taking place in 1983. Pages 60 and 61 looked like they missed the proofreader. Slow down on the characters and plots next time.

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Summary: The disfunctional Karp family
Review: I've read all of the Butch Karp books and enjoyed the early ones a great deal. As the series has gone on I find that I really don't like what the characters have become. There's the daughter, Lucy, who can learn any language in the world in weeks it seems. She also has no problem lying to her parents, particularly her mother, and being completely self centered. How could anyone care for a kid like this? And of course, Marline, the mom. What a neat lady! She has no problem with not telling the truth or committing violent, and sometimes illegal acts at the drop of a hat. She, by her own admission, is not professional in her work, which she knows her husband hates! That work being the care of battered women. She takes care of the bad guys by forcing them to confront her or their wives and then "bang!" Hardly a book goes by now that she doesn't shoot someone (she shoots 3 in this one). And it's always someone else's fault, no matter what the problem. There's a word for a woman like this and it begins with a "B." Of course there's Butch himself, a legal eagle who never loses in court but hasn't the slightest clue of how to deal with his wife or daughter. It's hard to feel any empathy or sympathy for him. The longer the book, the worse he looks. The plot is so confusing and involved that it takes a real effort to follow it, much less understand it. That seems to be the rule rather than the exception for Tanenbaum's books now. To sum it up: I've gotten to the point that I find the characters so distasteful that I don't care about reading any more about Karp and his clan. I'll pass on the next one.

Rating:
Summary: ho-hum
Review: I've read all of the Butch Karp books. Although I wait with eager anticipation for each new release, I was disappointed in this case. This was certainly not one of the author's better efforts in a series that has been in a slow, but steady decline over the past three or four installments. The story was slow, the character portrayal flat and uninspired. Mr. Tanenbaum seems to have placed the series in back into transition. One can only hope it will return in a better place. As much as I regret saying this, I honestly think it's time Mr. Tanenbaum took a break from Butch & Marlene, much like Steve Martini did from Paul Madriani or John Sanford from Lucas Davenport.