Act of Revenge [Paperback]

Robert K. Tanenbaum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Chief Assistant District Attorney Karp takes on a case that at first appears to be the result of a continuation of wars between Mob families, until Willie Lai, leader of a Chinese gang, tells Karp that he and his cohorts were involved.

Editorial 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 murdera 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. 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.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As former chief of the Homicide Bureau in the New York district attorney's office and an enormously successful trial lawyer, Tanenbaum knows as much about mayhem and the people who commit it as anyone writing today. Butch Karp, chief assistant New York DA, and his cohorts are trying to figure out the who and why of an important mafioso's murder. Karp's wife, security consultant Marlene Ciampi, is puzzling over a case of her own involving a Mafia wife and is almost killed in the process. Karp's 12-year-old genius daughter, Lucy, a language whiz and as inscrutable as her Chinese friends, turns out to be important to both cases and at serious risk. Chinatown Tongs, Asian Triads, Vietnamese gangs, the ever-popular Mafia, and a handful of freebooters are all involved in the body count. This colorfully written and cleverly plotted novel will be another winner for Tanenbaum. Budd Arthur --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd (October 1, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0732265487
• ISBN-13: 978-0732265489
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,841,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert K. Tanenbaum is one of the country's most successful trial lawyers -- he has never lost a felony case. He has been homicide bureau chief for the New York District Attorney's Office and deputy chief counsel to the congressional committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Most recently, he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure atthe University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. His previous works include the novels Escape, Malice, Fury, Hoax, Resolved, Enemy Within, and Absolute Rage and two true-crime books, The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer and Badge of the Assassin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Native New Yorker, October 31, 1999

By 

Andrea Sonn (East Windsor, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Act of Revenge (Hardcover)

Tanenbaum really knows NYC. As a native New Yorker, one of the things I enjoy most about his books is his intimate and accurate descriptions of NY neighborhoods, travel, food, accents, and attitudes. He really nails it. Why does he live in California? He's obviously still in love with NYC. So am I, and so I enjoy his books' settings. I also enjoy the character of Butch and Lucy. Marlene, though, is becoming tiresome in a wonderwoman, action heroine way. Act of Revenge is an interesting phase in the chronicle of the Karp family, but next book around he should send Marlene on an overseas assignment and concentrate on Lucy and Butch.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People Magazine loves Butch Karp & Marlene Ciampi ...., March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Act of Revenge (Hardcover)

People Magazine selected Tanenbaum's last two books, RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT and IRRESISTIBLE IMPULSE as "Page Turner of the Week" and "Beach Book of the Week." They're right. If you haven't yet tried Tanenbaum do it now with ACT OF REVENGE. You'll love it .... and then have his ten backlist Karp titles to truly indulge yourself.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Latest in series of thrillers radically creative in the genr, July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Act of Revenge (Hardcover)

This review is about the latest Karp as it connects with all 10 previous Karp thrillers. The typical hero of a thriller is a lone wolf - private eye, disaffected cop, intelligence agent - at odds with the system, and works outside it to resolve the plot, catch the villain and restablish justice. He, usually a he, may have emotional attachments, but they're typically romantic, and after a certain amount of sexual fireworks, they fade in the final pages, so that in the next book 'he' can start fresh with another romance. Rarely is there a family around. The writer inside this convention provides thrills but can't penetrate deeply into real life, for society's means of ACTUALLY coping with crime is highly bureaucratized, and the solution and punishment of crimes a group enterprise. Also, conventional thrillers finesse the effects of immersion in violence and corruption of family life. Your typical thriller hero is unmarried, or has a broken family. The Karp books try 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 N.Y. 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, who, as a result of this facility, is able to penetrate the various immigrant communities of N.Y. (and their criminous elements) in ways unavailable to her parents. This set-up allows these books to deal with the conflict between law and justice, between the demands of work and child rearing, between the moral assumptions of the established culture and those of newcomers, between men and women, between parents and children, at a depth not usual in the average thriller. Essentially, these are domestic comedies layered upon the tragedy implicit in society's need to impose a single order on the near infinite variety of individuals that compose it. As well as being a "good" read, they're a serious read. This writer obviously knows a great deal about novel writing and has high standards. Hope to see the writer unfold his talents in other genres, which he's obviously capable of doing.