Customer Reviews

No Lesser Plea

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

 

 

I read this book when it first came out and was immensely impressed. I re-read this book six years ago when I belatedly realized that RKT had concocted a series instead of a stand-alone book. I was as impressed with the book the second (and even the third) time around as I was the first. I have since rushed to the store each year for the latest installment of the Karp-Ciampi chronicles and have not been disappointed.
No Lesser Plea is a well-plotted legal thriller with interesting bad guys, witty dialogue, believable legal antics, and fascinating main characters. If you a reader of this genre and you have no discovered RKT give this book a try.
There are several things I greatly admire in this series of books that does not come across by reading the first one. The most important thing is the development of the relationship between Butch & Marlene (and their family and hangers-on) over the course of the series. These characters become real people (rather more witty and articulate than the ordinary person) who have problems, disagreements, and day-to-day lives outside the pivotal legal issue being presented in the book. A second thing I like about the series is the development of current legal issues through the narrative format. By having Butch and Marlene on different sides of a question, the reader is exposed to moral and legal complexities of today's society. The last thing that I love about these books is their humor. There is at least one point in every book that sends me into gales of laughter. This is usually a bit of witty dialogue between Butch/Marlene and/or their children, but it also can be an exceptionally apt, pithy description of a situation or person. Anyway, this is one of the most alive series of books I have read and I would love to meet these characters (but not live near them since there does seem to be an inordinate amount of gunplay involved in their neighborhood).

This is the first book by Tanenbaum which features "Butch" Karp. This book was really well plotted. The characters are somewhat real. I simply could not put this book down! What a great story it holds.

Robert K. Tannenbaum has created a well-regarded series of legal thrillers set in New York City and featuring D.A. Roger 'Butch' Karp. I have read others in this series. This one is the first and is set from 1970-1973.

The main legal focus of the book and the source of the title is the case of Mandeville Louis, a user of men and women who masterminds a murderous liquor store heist and causes his get away driver to die from an overdose. Louis has a plan to avoid punishment by faking to be mentally ill and eventually plea bargain his way to freedom based on time served in a mental institution rather than a harsher penal institution (shades of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest').

Butch Karp sniffs out the true legal motives of Louis and writes in magic marker on the case file 'No Lesser Plea' just in case it comes up for review again and he is not informed.

The legal story is quite good but Tannenbaum's story bogs down in the antics of the District Attorney's office (it reminds me of the movie M*A*S*H but without the excuse of an insane war to push the characters to the edge of sanity). Butch's friend Guma is insufferable (he drags pistols out of the evidence room to play cops and robbers and then promptly loses some of them, he sets of a C-4 charge in a reflection pool during an office garden party, has sex on his office desk and so on) and the whole office politics scene is too hurried. If Tannenbaum had paced himself a bit these antics would have been more tolerable. As they are presented, they distract from the legal thriller at hand.

Final Grade: C

Butch and Marlene are the best thing to happen since girls got to be tough! REAL tough. This book falls headlong, at breakneck speed, right into your sub-concious parts. Hang around for all of the lovingly decadent cast of personalities foisted upon us from RKT's very fertile mind.

It's one to be enjoyed in one big gulp. Say Friday night 'till Sunday, just befor church.

I usually don't like court room stories. I'm more a private eye or police procedural typr. But I really liked this one. It gave what appeared to be a believable look at the workings of a big city DA's office (I know real big city assistant DA's are rolling their eyes at this but take a deep breath and relax). I was fully engaged by the story and liked how the author carried the story over time without losing steam. The office politics subplot was interesting and more than padding. I give 5 stars sparingly so don't take the four stars as faint praise. Find it and read it, the book is worth your while.

This is a good read, even though it ended a bit abrubtly. It's intelligently written, and the characters are well developed. I would put it in the 3 1/2 to 4 star range.

I just finished this book and am off to buy the next one right now. I enjoyed the characters, their interpersonal relations, their style and, for the leads, their values.

There are plenty of reviews that talk about the plot (excellent) the dialog (realistic) the snappy, sometimes quite funny lines and the pervasive malaise that is the criminal court system.

From time to time, those of us who love good mysteries find an author with a long backlist that we were previously unaware of. That happened about a year ago for me (Archer Mayor) and just now for Tanenbaum. I'll be devouring his books over the next few weeks.

Enough writing. Go get this book. I'm heading for the next one's one-click right now.

Love starting the Butch Karp series from scratch. I really enjoy Tanenbaum's/Gruber's books, which I imagine are mostly Grubers' Excellent service from seller.

I made the mistake of not sampleing this book. I was not happy with the language in the first few pages and decided not to read further.