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Robert K. Tanenbaum

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Act of Revenge (The Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Series Book 11) Kindle Edition

by Robert K. Tanenbaum (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 312 ratings

Book 11 of 29: Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi

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“Tanenbaum is one lawyer who can write with the best of them.”
—Joseph Wambaugh, New York Times bestselling author of Hollywood Hills

“Tanenbaum is one hell of a writer.”
—New York Post

“He has become a master of this genre, and Act of Revenge may be his most exciting and best effort to date.”
—Vincent Bugliosi, New York Times bestselling author of Helter Skelter

A classic, pulse-pounding thriller from the legendary Robert K. Tanenbaum, Act of Revenge plunges the popular author’s long-running series protagonists, New York City Chief Assistant District Attorney Butch Karp and family, into the lethal heart of a bloody turf war between the Mafia and ruthless Chinese gangsters. An elite member of America’s contemporary crime fiction and thriller royalty—a master whose work stands tall among the novels of John Sanford, Lee Child, Robert Crais, and Brad Meltzer—Tanenbaum entertains magnificently, displaying true storytelling muscle with Act of Revenge.

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.

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

From Kirkus Reviews

Fasten your seat belts for the bumpiest ride in Butch Karp's long career with the New York D.A.'s office: a case that expands till it gobbles up his wife and daughter. Butch's latest brief is the execution of Salvatore Bollano capo regime Eddie Catalano, whose rival Joe Pigetti, the obvious candidate for pulling off the hit, has an alibi this wide. While Butch duels with US Attorney Thomas Colombo over who talks to whom about what with which guarantees, his wife, domestic-abuse-vigilante Marlene Ciampi, is busy with her own nest of hornets far from the usual turf of her security agency: the widow of Jumping Jerry Fein, who dived from the observation deck of the Empire State Building 20 years ago, suddenly wants the case reopened. (Why now? wonders Marlene. And why do so many people object?) Busiest of all, though, is Butch and Marlene's daughter Lucy, 12, who was witness to a murder at the Asia Mall. Now the shooter is very interested in Lucy and the two friends who were with her, Mary Ma and Asia Mall offspring Janice Chen. In real life, or in Tanenbaum's last novel (Irresistible Impulse, 1997), these three cases would never come within a mile of each other; here, they're wound together tightly enough to make most readers beg for Motrin. As usual, Tanenbaum pulls off a hundred effective scenes in a dozen different toneshis affection for Butch's knockabout, have-it-all family is neatly balanced by his brisk malice in showing them and their legion of well-armed allies facing down killers and kidnappers and TV hostsbut the mind-boggling plot, which Marlene compares to an Elizabethan revenge tragedy even while complications are still getting phoned in, drowns in double-crosses, legal maneuvers, and killings. And it's no surprise when the climax shows Marlene under deadly attack by two parties who don't even know of each other's existence. It all adds up to too much of a very good thing indeed. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

Robert Tanenbaum's very distinguished prosecutorial background allows him to bring the raw reality of big-city true crime to his fictional crime thrillers. He has become a master of this genre, and Act of Revenge may be his most exciting and best effort to date." -- Vincent Bugliosi, New York Times bestselling author of Helter Skelter and And the Sea Will Tell

"Tanenbaum is one lawyer who can write with the best of them." -- -- Joseph Wambaugh

"Tanenbaum is one hell of a writer. [His] real strength has always been his characters, and he doesn't fail here." -- --New York Post

"Tanenbaum is one lawyer who can write with the best of them." -- Joseph Wambaugh

From the Back Cover

To Butch Karp—a chief assistant district attorney with a formidable reputation as a brilliant and fearless prosecutor—the brutal assassination of Bollano family capo Ed Catalano appears to be a continuation of old-style wars between Mob families. But Willie Lie, leader of a Chinese gang called the White Dragons, insists that he and his cohorts were involved. The case is further complicated by an unscrupulous and ambitious U.S. attorney looking to use the Mob murder to advance his political career. And when Karp's twelve-year-old daughter witnesses a Chinatown gang slaying, she suddenly becomes a target herself.

But his child isn't the only loved one threatened. Karp's wife, Marlene—a private security consultant specializing in protecting stalked and abused women—is delving perilously into the decades-old death of a notorious Mob lawyer. And as their two investigations intertwine, Karp and Marlene must race to find answers before two of New York's most dangerous criminal organizations turn an unsuspecting city into a bloody battleground.

About the Author

The former Homicide Bureau Chief in the New York District Attorney's office, Robert K. Tanenbaum is also one of the country's most successful and famous trial lawyerswho has never lost a felony caseand former two-term mayor of Beverly Hills. He was Deputy Chief Counsel to the Congressional Committee Investigation into the assassinations of President Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. He has published ten novels and two true-crime books.

From AudioFile

Here is a satisfying addition to Tanenbaum's popular crime thriller series. Chief Assistant D.A. Butch Karp heads what must be the most unconventional family in crime fiction. His private-eye wife noses into old Mafia secrets, and his 12-year-old daughter becomes the target of a Chinatown Tong. The resulting web of gang conflicts is masterfully plotted. Tanenbaum crams the book with memorable characters, lots of humor, and almost encyclopedic information about Asian-American lifestyles, language and customs. This kind of writing might benefit from a more spontaneous reading. Arthur Addision's delivery is capable and correct, although some listeners might wish for more vocal variety and a brighter pace. S.P. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004HD62OO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reissue edition (May 31, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 31, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3077 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 489 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #493,358 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,353 in Legal Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #2,401 in Espionage Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #2,580 in Organized Crime Thrillers

Customer Reviews:
4.5 312 ratings

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Butch Phelps is a forward thinking massage therapist who has studied the muscles of the human body from a whole body presepective in regardsto movement.

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Elizabeth Muir-Chamberlain

Very Entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2021

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I enjoyed the portrayal of ethnic differences in the background of Mr Tannenbaum 's novels. While I classify his books as a cross between police procedural and legal thriller, the real enjoyment for me is his subplot revolving around family and friends. I am able to identify with several of his characters as I came from a mixed family. My father, an MD, was Episcopalian while my mother was a first generation American born of immigrant Hungarian Jews. My dad was brought to the U.S. as a very small child and Mom was born in Chicago. I speak a few languages, though nothing remotely as spectacular as Lucy. However, I enjoy the references to multiple languages especially the Yiddish I heard around the home growing up. My grandmother spoke Hungarian, English, Yiddish, and Swedish. The folks would lapse into Hungarian or German when the wanted to exclude us from the conversation.

This novel was very good, and a little less tense than its predecessor, a little more believable plot too, and thoroughly enjoyable. Perhaps my only complaint to the esteemed counselor is his penchant for using obscure adjectives. I consider myself well read (averaging 4-5 books per week along with newspapers, professional magazine articles, and internet news outlets) and erudite in general, but I have to look up words unfailingly in every chapter. Other than that foible or rather, predilection of Mr Tannenbaum 's, I am a devoted fan. I am reading these books again after having read them when first published, and don't mind buying the e-versions after having bought paperbacks years earlier.

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2023

Good reading

Excellent Karp/Chiampi stuff

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2017

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The same team (Butch, Marlene, Tran, Lucy) and, for good measure, Ray Guma, the Mob, Triads and Tongs. What's not to like?

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MovieMadness

True thriller and a great who-doneit with a fabulous twist at the end that spices up the story tremendously!!

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2020

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True thriller with great character development through out as the plot twists and turns through triads and Mafia gangs. It also takes us around and thru various new and old neighborhoods as the action heats up with kidnappings and shootouts. All the action and drama you have come to love and expect and enjoy!!! Five stars for sure *****

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2021

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If you enjoy a realistic legal thriller, this book is for you. The story unfolds beautifully and you feel as though you are in the courtroom yourself!

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2020

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If you enjoy a well written page turner, this is for you. I am reading the whole series again only this time in order. Being elderly has its perks. You know who the good authors are but the stories seem new but strangely familiar.

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2016

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This is a very thrilling mystery that is s well written with many twists all tied neatly together in the end. Great summer read.

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James G.

Riveting, interesting, complex and smart all the way through!

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015

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The best of the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series I have read so far. Lucy Karp is developed as a tremendously intriguing character as is "Uncle Tran". The plot is complex and constantly riveting with fascinating cultural aspects and smart underlying commentaries on politics, social issues, and more. Tanenbaum was Butch Karp in real life so he knows....

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Act of Revenge (The Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Series Book 11) Kindle Edition

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Booklist

From Kirkus Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

From AudioFile

Product details

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About the author

Robert K. Tanenbaum

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