Customer Reviews

Capture (Thorndike Press Large Print Thriller)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've long loved the Karp/Ciampi clan adventures. Somewhere a few books back (some say it was "after Gruber")the books in this series went from being well written thought provoking thrillers to farcical parodies of the earlier successes. "Resolved" was pretty good. "Hoax" had its moments and I thought perhaps Tanenbaum would get his mojo back. But alas, "Capture" is pretty awful...even laughable. I will not be finishing it, nor buying the next in this series unless Tanenbaum gets a better editor and "scrivener".

I was disappointed in Tanenbaum's latest book. The plot(s) move very slowly and Tanenbaum;s writing seems much more subdued in pace and tone than in earlier books. I had no problem putting the book aside to continue another day. All of the gang are back: Butch, Marlene (in almost a cameo role), Lucy, the twins, Ned, Espey, Tran, John, David, the priest, V.T., and even Guma in a small (but funny) role. Lucy has joined Espey's group (what happened to her language skills?), as has Ned. Ned has become a potential sniper in a SWAT-team-like situation, which I find impossible to believe. Perhaps the best part of the book is the trial dialog for the case being tried for which Butch has assumed the lead as the DA, when the assistant DA originally assigned to the case is found dead. At times, reading this, I almost got the impression that this will be the last book about the Karps. All of the loose ends seem to be tied up and all of the characters (except perhaps Lucy and David) are in the places and situations where I expect them to be at the end of the series. Recommended only for the diehard Karp and Tanenbaum fans.

I cannot understand why an author will use a succesful formula for several books, and then try something prepostorous. Butch Carp may be a fine prosecutor, but Tanenbaum is no Frederick Forsythe. Tanenbaum fails badly when he ventures into a realm he knows nothing about. The plodding novel becomes merely boring when the author tries to blend international intrigue with a crime/prosecution main plot. In short it is a poor and futile attempt at literary diversity.

I enjoyed reading the adventures of the Karp/Ciampi brood and their friends. This book makes me yearn for those early books. In the book "Capture", the reader is presented with a weird and boring amalgam of cartoonish characters placed in improbable situations. What happened to the sharp dialogue and engrossing problems that had been presented in the books ghost written by Michael Gruber? I realize that finding someone like Gruber may be difficult, but I feel that more effort should have been made. Each time a new Tanenbaum book is published, I hope that the magic formula had been rediscovered, and I would again enjoy one of his books. Again I was wrong.

This book is a sequel to Escape and, to a lesser extent, Malice as it continues with the terrorist plots involving al-Sistani, Nadya Malovo, and the Sons of Man. A parallel plotline involves the re-trial of a Broadway producer for killing an actress he claims committed suicide that bears some resemblance to the Phil Spector case.

In this book, Ned, Lucy, Tran and Jojola are working with "Espey" Jaxon in a secret mission to track down and kill Nadya Malovo in Dagestan (a Russian Federation Republic) and later Ned, Tran and Jojola go after Muslim terrorists in Trinidad. Lucy is kidnapped in a plot to retrieve al-Sistani from David Grale's underground kingdom. (The identity of the kidnapper is a little surprise but not much.)

Even writing the bare bones plot summary makes it sound like there is a lot going on in the book -- and there is. On the one hand it means there is a lot of action, but it also means there is not much depth to any of it. This book includes many of the characters from previous books, even though many of them make only cameo appearances. New readers to the series do not get much background on the characters and will have to just go with the action.

This book has lots of action, interesting trial strategy and courtroom scenes, and suspense. It is not my favorite in the series but it was an enjoyable fast read. New readers should definitely read the early books in the series for great legal thrillers.

If you like good mysteries you will enjoy this book. Kept me busy for several evenings and could hardly wait to get back to it.

Maybe I'm asking too much or have simply made the mistake of reading this particular Tanenbaum first.

The premises in themselves are simply too far-fetched, too crowded together, too everything-but-the-kitchen-sink. Every book is an exercise in suspension of disbelief, but in this case, the magic is simply not working.

Now, I love thrillers, police procedurals, prosecution dramas and John LeCarre type international spy stories. Several dozens go through my hands every year. But I have a feeling that I am not even going to get as far as page 100 on this one. I'll give it a second chance, though, since I have a twelve-hour plane trip coming up tomorrow and there will be nothing else to read.

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I read about a book a week, so I have been slowly running out of my favorite genre. Thriller/Suspense! I use the local library to review their "Staff Picks" to find new authors. This book was such a waste of my time, I absolutely have nothing to say positive ....I will take that back, it was the best book ever to go to sleep with. It took me 3.5 weeks to finish! Most sleep I have had in years.

Although Butch Karp, Tanenbaum's character, fondly notes that "less is more", Tanenbaum apparently does not understand the concept. There are at least 15 "main" characters, and at least 5 stories going.... and the dialog is so redundant, that I actually skipped pages and still knew what was going on. It reminds me of the daytime "Soap Operas" I watched as a kid. They repeat and repeat and wear out the issue, so thin that you can actually skip months of watching them and still know what's happening......

Dang, they don't let you use less than a star!

Just finished the book and I realize that the continued "New York as a terrorist target" can get old. But Tanenbaum does a good thriller and "Capture" is no different.

The characters are interesting (though maybe a little good vs. bad) and he does good intricate plotting. Like all good series, Tanenbaum's has recurring characters and they show up here. In fact, some of those minor characters are the mosting riveting of the lot.

As a practicing attorney, though, I am very disappointed in Tanenbaum's lack of proper legal procedure in this book. His publicity plays off his long time prosecutorial experience but this book is filled with trial work that even a first year law student would recognize as "bad". And don't think it can't be done properly--Erle Stanley Gardner's books were legally correct as are most of Steve Martini's. Shame on you, Mr. Tanenbaum, shame.

Still suffers badly from comparison the to the earlier Karp noels-those that were ghost-written by Michael Gruber.