Robert K. Tanenbaum

This is a thriller written by a lawyer. Wait! Come back! It's not boring like most lawyerly fiction is!

Butch and Marlene, Tanenbaum's married sleuths, are back again and they're in fine fettle. I liked them when I first encountered them in No Lesser Plea quite a long time ago. They're a little Nick-and-Nora-y, but they strike out into new territory because she's got one helluva scary job: She's a protection specialist for abused women in jeopardy.

Wait! Come back! It's not like a Lifetime show more movie, I promise!

Butch and Marlene are facing off against the two scariest and cruelest entities on Planet Earth in this book. No, not Simon Cowell and Nina Garcia! The Mafia and the Chinese tongs. They poke their collective nose into what seems like a box-stock hit on a capo after their 12-year-old witnesses part of the war that led to the hit. Now she's a target, and so now it's Close to Home.

It's a taut, well-made thriller, and the stakes could NOT be higher. No, you don't need to read the books in order...this one would make a great place to start, for example. Tanenbaum made the leap from book-at-a-time good to series good a while ago. This 11-year-old outing is no exception. show less

I have read many books in this series now. I have really grown to like Butch. He is at the top of his game. I would not want to be the opposing attorney in the courtroom. Many have tried and failed to bring Butch down. He is like an inflatable punching bag. You can hit him and knock him down as many times as you want but he comes right back up and if you don't watch yourself you might get hit back. It was a nice surprise to see Butch's love interest, Marlene make a brief appearance. I am a show more fan of this couple.

This book reads like an episode of Law & Order but the true story that inspires the episode. It features a war raged between white cops and blacks. However, Mr. Tanenbaum was smart in the way he portrayed this story. He did not make it one sided. In fact, some of the cops were mixed race. Although, what I have enjoyed more and more with these books is seeing Butch in action in the court room. This book is a definite one seat read! I look forward to checking out the next book in this series. show less

The Mr. Tanenbaum I have gotten to become familiar with is starting to emerge in this book. Butch and Marlene make both a great working couple as well as a couple. Marlene brings out the best in Butch. She also brings out the frisky side of him as well. Yet, when he is helping to investigate a case or in the courtroom, he is all business. That is what I did miss in this book is the big courtroom drama.

This time though, I got to see more of the human side of Marlene. It was refreshing. Yet, show more I did find Butch to be more on point this time with the investigation. Speaking of the murders. They were gruesome and there was one scene that was really kind of horrific in nature involving a child. So, if you can't handle gruesome than this book may not be for you. A good read none the less. show less

I have not read any of the earlier Butch Karp novels but I really enjoyed this fast moving page turner. This is a case of the rich unscrupulous ruthless mogul versus the smart no holds barred DA. Throw in a couple of Boris and Natasha types and you have a real page turner. I finished it off in two days. It begins with a black-ops raid in the middle east. During the raid the soldiers, find a strange collection of terrorists and government officials all dead. On their return to base, the sole show more surviving prisoner and all of the recovered documents are forcibly spirited away on orders from higher up. The commanding officer is concerned and when he continues to pursue the matter on his return to the US, he is assassinated in NYC. The author weaves a series of series of ever converging storylines into one seductive cogent whole. This in the end, leads to an exciting courtroom murder/political expose trial in which the two sides each confident of winning spar back and forth.

As I said this is a great fun read with a little of everything included. The themes include espionage, murder, infidelity, thugs, conspiracies, political and police corruption. The only possible complaint might be a few too many interrelationships and coincidences since almost everyone seems to have a past history together. This not really a thriller but a well told web of intrigue. I would love to read more of Tanebaum's work and would recommend this one show less