Linda A. (Springfieldreader) reviewed Act of Revenge (Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Bk 11) on + 458 more book reviews
A very, very good book.
Janis K. (scrapbooklady) reviewed Act of Revenge (Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Bk 11) on + 472 more book reviews
"Act of Revenge" is part of the Karp series. This series tries to deal with the question of how a family responds to an atmosphere of danger and violence. Butch Karp is a senior official with the New York D.A. His wife, Marlene, is a private detective who specializes in protecting women from stalkers and domestic violence. Their teen-aged daughter, Lucy, is a language prodigy, speaking dozens of languages fluently which allows her the ability to penetrate the various immigrant communities of N.Y. in ways unavailable to her parents. This set-up allows these books to deal with the conflict between law and justice, the demands of work and child rearing, the moral assumptions of the established culture verses those of newcomers, men verses women and parents verses children, at a depth not usual in the average thriller. Not only is this a good read, it's also a serious read. Mr. Tanenbaum obviously knows a great deal about novel writing and has high standards. I look forward to more of his work.
Amy V. (ButterflyAmy) reviewed Act of Revenge (Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Bk 11) on + 8 more book reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Veteran author Tanenbaum (Reckless Endangerment) pens a lethal 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. Pressure mounts when Lucy is roughed up by Vietnamese goons before being saved by the mysterious Tran, Marlenes devoted Vietnamese muscle. Meanwhile, Marlene is hired by the wife of Little Sally Bollano, nutcase son of the mob boss, to prove that her fathers suicide when she was 16 was really murder a job that twists into the Chinatown killings, ignites the Bollano family, exposes a corrupt judge and almost costs Marlene her life. 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.
Veteran author Tanenbaum (Reckless Endangerment) pens a lethal 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. Pressure mounts when Lucy is roughed up by Vietnamese goons before being saved by the mysterious Tran, Marlenes devoted Vietnamese muscle. Meanwhile, Marlene is hired by the wife of Little Sally Bollano, nutcase son of the mob boss, to prove that her fathers suicide when she was 16 was really murder a job that twists into the Chinatown killings, ignites the Bollano family, exposes a corrupt judge and almost costs Marlene her life. 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.
