I've always been a fan of Tannenbaum's books, but this one is an exception. For Karp-Ciampi fans, it is sad to see how these favorite characters have become caricatures of their former selves. The lengthy past-perfect back-stories and annoying flash-back devices, along with the preposterous plot recycled from previous books make the story almost impossible to follow. If this is your introduction to Butch and Marlene, do yourself a favor and grab any of the earlier books. They're so much better.

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For me, this was a book that I was unable to finish. Half-way thru, and there seems to be no connection from page to page, chapter to chapter.

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An excellent book by an excellent writer.

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Good Read

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Tannenbaum again shows his talent for interweaving several plot lines and multiple characters into a complex and riveting thriller.

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I started reading Tannenbaum's books with the first one, and have read them in sequence up to this one. In the last two or three, I've noticed a disappointing tendency for the plots to get less and less credible. I know this is fiction, but he seems to be "jumping the shark" as they say about a TV series which is on its last legs and starts to present more and more outlandish stunts in an attempt to attract a new audience. If you think you'd like to meet Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, try to find book 1 ("No Lesser Plea") and follow the saga from there; he has added lots of new characters over the years, and the two main protagonists have worked together, fallen in love, shacked up, got married, and started raising a family. Their oldest child is now in her late teens, so you can see where this has gone on for a while. My ratings of these books over the years have fallen from five stars to four stars, and lately to three. I still enjoy them, but less and less as the years roll by. I hope the author gets hold of himself eventually since I still have five or six I haven't read yet... Guess I'll stop buying new ones for a while.

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This is a fast paced, action packed book. I really enjoyed the characters, which I had read in some of this authors previous books. I would highly recommend this book to other readers.

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Mr. & Mrs Karp are great fun.

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