Customer Reviews

Falsely Accused

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having eagerly devoured the previous Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi novels, I was disappointed with the last one, Corruption of Blood, which dealt with the Kennedy assassination. But luckily Falsely Accused is right back on track, with our heroes in New York again. Although Butch is working for a firm of civil lawyers and Marlene is striking out on a new and different career, their cases lead them to dealings with the DA's department and the infamous DA himself, Sandy Bloom. Will Karp get revenge at last for Bloom's treatment of himself and Marlene?

The plot develops satisfyingly, with Karp's and Marlene's separate cases meshing, as they so often do, to enable a joint (if not wholly plausible) resolution. But hey, who's counting!

It's not just the plotting which I find so enchanting about these books. The characterisation is fine, with the good guys being reassuringly flawed - even the rather goody-goody Butch is rounding out as the series develops. Lucy is perhaps less well-drawn, being by turns baby-ish for a 7-year old and then stunningly precocious.

Most of all, I enjoy the style, the quality of the writing itself. Tanenbaum has a great ear for dialogue, for the way people switch topics in mid-conversation; his characters talk like real people, only more amusingly. Altogether, he has a delightful way with words, being at times wry, whimsical and ironic. I find myself jotting down some of his wittier phrases to use, er, spontaneously myself in conversation... Sincerest form of flattery, and all that!

I'm glad I've read the series in order, and if someone was thinking of starting with this book I'd recommend them to go back to the beginning. Maybe skip out Corruption of Blood unless you're really keen to read more Kennedy assassination theories - and enjoy Falsely Accused, which finds Tanenbaum once more at the height of his powers.

This book has EVERYTHING for the mystery lover - interwoven plots, snappy dialogue, narrative flow, memorable characters and a great ending, consistent with the story lines. I had never read Tanenbaum, but found the book at a rummage sale. He moved me right into his fictional world with the first page.

The first half of this book is kind of slow going until the three separate story lines start coming together. The second half zips along pretty good. I agree with one of the other reviewers...I was surprised and a little dismayed in the part that seven year old Lucy played in the end. Leaves a person with a lot to think about.

Kirkus Reviews: "blistering novel electrifying page turner" Butch Karp has left the Manhattan D.A's office, but not the legal hot-seat, as this blistering novel of endless Big Apple corruption and coverups makes abundantly clear.Butch's client - a client he takes on over the howls of his firm's colleagues, who prefer to hold their star litigator over the heads of their own handpicked enemies - is ex-Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Murray Selig, tossed out of office on trumped-up charges so risible that the Mayor and D.A. Sanford Bloom have to have somehting else in mid - something pretty dire. While Karp is gathering the ammunition to destroy the D.A.'s defense witnesses, his wife, Marlene Ciampi, also on the lam from the D.A.'s office, is fighting off her pushy friend, high-flying reporter Ariadne Shipenagel - busy working on a story of the shakedown of three New York cabbies who fortuitiously died in police custody - long enough to set up her own agency serving women who need help enforcing protective legal orders against strangers or sadists or former lovewrs who are stalking them. Ciampi's highly effective vigilante tactics - heaven help the stalker she gets her teeth into - give Tanebaum's a shot of welcome humor to counterbalance Ciampi's involvement with Isabelle and Hector, a pair of wary regugee kids somebody has dumped at tough Mattie Dusan's Women's Shelter. Amazingly, Tanenbaum manages to pull all four cases together - Selig's civil suit against the Mayor and the D.A., Stupenagel's investigation of the police shaekdown, Ciampi's anti-stalking campaign and the sorry tale of Isabella an Hector - and even finds a surprising new role for Karp and Ciampi's precocious seven-year old daugther Lucy.After tossing Karp into the treacherous deeps of the Kennedy assassination (CORRUPTION OF BLOOD, 1995) Tanenbaum proves that his meticulous homework on questions of legal procedure and the best Chinese restaurant for an off-the-record conversation can turn the most preposterous conspiracy of his own into an electrifying page-turner.

Well! I found his story telling excellent and his use of language the same. I had no trouble with the ending, although I knew immediately whom not to trust - and it wasn't one of the children. My confusion lies in having looked up the author on the good ol' internet and finding he has a ghost writer, his cousin. I have no way to prove or disprove that allegation and was hoping someone on this forum could add some intelligence.

TIA

This is one of the best books in the Kaep/Ciampi series. The writer stays with two major scenarios and is able to skillfully intertwine numerous others that add to a well told story. The book has the tedency to drag slightly, although thses instances are few and far between. Perhaps the greatest area of weakness comes in the inability of the writer to develop characters that are realistic. Although he draws upon his legal knowledge to create a Karp who is believable, the same cannot be said about Ciampi who appears to be a cardboard cutoutof a character. In spite of these flaws, the book moves along at agood pace with some twists that are of interest, even if they are somewhat predictable.

Followers of Tanenbaum's intelligent 1970/80's-set series (Corruption of Blood etc.) featuring married lawyers, Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi will find that the author's punchy style perfectly suits his latest three-ring crime spectacle. Tanenbaum's talent is large, and so are his characters. These assets, along with a shot of genuine compassion for the troubles of children, enable him to just pull this one off. If readers won't quite believe the shockingly unconventional resulution, they'll still be affected by it, leaving them eager to know where this heroic family of crimefighters goes from here

Butch Karp, formerly with the DA's Office is now in private practice and is representing New York's chief medical examiner, Murray Selig, who has been fired without cause and is suing the city. Karp's wife Marlene Ciampi has also left the DA's office. She's pregnant and is looking after her small daughter. She decides to open a private detective agency in partnership with an ex-cop and specialize in protecting threatened women from abusive ex-husbands and stalkers.

Unexpectedly, the cases they're working on collide as Karp pursues his investigation of why City Hall has it in for the medical examiner and what the DA has to hide and Ciampi tries to find out why two terrified refugee children are keeping a frightening secret, and why two Guatemalan cab drivers have been murdered by two crooked cops.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

We have had Tanenbaum on our "to read" list for several years, and finally glommed onto "Falsely Accused", number 8 in his Butch Karp (and wife Marlene Ciampi) series which approaches nearly 24 books now. Both protagonists are ex-assistant DA's (indeed, the author's own real "day job") with a lot of legal experience. Marlene is mostly a stay at home mom now, raising 7-year-old Lucy, with another "in the oven"; and Butch is now the only trial lawyer in a high flying private law firm at which he makes boatloads of money.

Karp picks up a case involving a famous Chief Medical Examiner who has been obviously wrongfully discharged and defamed in the process. The question becomes "why", which is about the only interesting part of this section of the novel. Meanwhile, Marlene decides to open a detective agency with an ex-cop to help women who have been battered by the men in their lives and who need further help, including, apparently, legal or illegal assistance in resolving their cases. While this sets up some interesting dialogue between our married couple re the ethics of such causes, it did little to endear that part of the plot to us either. The novel eventually gets suspenseful when (as often happens when two stories rotate throughout a book) the couple's cases start to merge, but the getting there is slow and the ending fairly predictable.

We found the author's writing fine enough, but had trouble getting excited about the plot or the two main characters. Much of the book was boring, and our sticking to it was only rewarded late in the proceedings. While the author must have a huge following to have a two-dozen book bibliography, we were probably not sufficiently motivated to try another. Like some of Martini's outings, dry!

Tanenbaum takes three seemingly unrelated events and brings them all together for a satisfying, if somewhat disturbing end. I would grant that the plot as a whole is not altogether plausible in the real world, but for fiction was quite enjoyable. I was left a little wide-eyed at the part Lucy ( The Karp's daughter) played in the end, after all she is only seven. Even with these minor complaints I would still highly reccomend this book. Tannenbaum has drawn some great characters. I look foreward to the next Butch and Marlene book.
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