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CAPTURE
by Robert K. Tannenbaum
Pocket , June 2009
448 pages
$26.00
ISBN: 1439148600


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

New York City's District Attorney Butch Karp takes on a hands-on approach in the retrial of an infamous Broadway producer accused of killing an aspiring actress.

Robert K. Tanenbaum takes the "ripped from the headlines" approach in his latest volume in the series featuring New York District Attorney Butch Karp, his strong-willed, justice-seeking wife Marlene Ciampi, and their resourceful children. The family has gone through a lot in over twenty novels where they saved either the world or just New York City. This novel is no different. The Karps, as well as their friends and associates, managed to stop a terrorist act last time in ESCAPE, that was meant to destroy the New York Stock Exchange and create a financial chaos. CAPTURE picks up on the aftermath with a new plan and a new agenda underway.

It starts with Karp taking the lead in the retrial of a kinky has-been Broadway producer accused of killing an aspiring actress by firing a gun into the roof of her mouth. The case ended in a hung jury and now the prosecution has a better case and they are ready to pull out all the stops. While all this is happening, Karp is unaware that his resourceful polyglot daughter has been kidnapped by the villains who are trying to demonstrate that they are being really serious about what they are trying to do. Only one person will be able to foil them, but he is too busy trying to convict an infamous celebrity..

CAPTURE is entertaining, if you do not think too hard about the book's weak spots. There is the implausibility of a New York City DA who has the luxury of having to work on only one case, celebrated as it is. Then he turns into an action hero in the book's dramatic finale. The book is also bogged down by too many recurring characters one assumes have appeared in other Butch Karp novels. The villains are archetypes and stereotypes that one would find in a Batman comic. The bad guys in this book are ridiculous at times when one consider who they are or what they were supposed to be in a former life.

Nor does CAPTURE work well as a legal thriller. Action, maybe … or perhaps a graphic novel, with unconvincing twists and turns in the plot. Enjoy the book for what it is, not for what it is pretending to be. Karp is no Jason Bourne or Jack McCoy. He's just another character who overcompensates in his role in the series.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, June 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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