Hoax (Butch Karp Series #16) » (~)

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.

When a rap impresario is gunned down in his limo in New York City, it appears that gang-related violence has reared its ugly head once again. But nothing's as it seems in this thriller from the pen of Robert K. Tannebaum. For a start, there's the long tentacles of Andrew Kane, a man who would be mayor, a man who wants to control the power elite like pawns, and a man who has terrible secrets, and knows worse about his friends and foes alike. In addition, the Catholic Church is about to face some secrets of its own, especially when Karp's wife, Marlene, rehabilitating at a Taos, New Mexico art colony, stumbles upon a sex abuse murder scandal brewing in a nearby church retreat. Eventually, the action swings back to a roiled New York, where evidence surfaces connecting rogue priests to murdered kids. Hoax features enough crime-solving to fill ten books, as Karp attempts to untangle the web of violence and corruption, both of which threaten his career, and the lives of his family.

Publishers Weekly

One sure way to engage reader sympathy in a crime novel is to involve the hero's family; in Roger "Butch" Karp's 15 earlier adventures (Resolved; Absolute Rage; etc.), the DA's family has paid dearly for this inclusion. Wife Marlene is disfigured from a letter bomb, 11-year-old son Giancarlo has been blinded by a would-be assassin, and daughter, Lucy, was abducted twice: "His entire family seemed to attract danger as picnics did ants." Marlene is attending a Taos art therapy school, healing the psychic toll of dispensing vigilante justice and thwarting terrorists. Lucy is there, too, leaving dad behind to battle "evil incarnate" in the form of Andrew Kane, a sociopath running for mayor of New York. Kane's pursuits include insider trading, drugs, prostitution, money laundering, arms sales and extortion. Characters include a killer priest, corrupt policemen, a gallant American-Indian cop and mole people who crawl out of the city's sewers to haunt the night, among others. Tanenbaum keeps all these balls in the air while lecturing on the evils of racism, the plight of the modern Indian, the value of honor, the evils of gangsta rap and much, much more. It is by turns boring, insightful, pedestrian, silly, maudlin, exhausting and exciting. Agent, Robert G. Diforio. (Aug.) Forecast: This will do well with Tanenbaum's numerous fans, but it's too preachy to bring many new readers to the series. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.