What do you think?
Rate this book
Butch Karp #17
Fury
In Brooklyn, a female jogger is brutally raped; the assailants are convicted and later exonerated by the Kings County DA. Now the guilty are filing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city of New York, the police, and the two Brooklyn Assistant DAs who tried the case. Caught in the glare of the media-frenzy, Butch Karp may be blinded to the lethal maneuverings of a terrorist cell plotting to bring the city to its knees by striking Times Square on New Year's Eve. But the destruction begins far below ground, in the subway system -- where Karp's family may become their first victims....
608 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 13, 2005
38 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Robert K. Tanenbaum
76 books280 followersRobert K. Tanenbaum is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five legal thrillers and has an accomplished legal career of his own. Before his first book was published, Tanenbaum had already been the Bureau Chief of the Criminal Courts, had run the Homicide Bureau, and had been in charge of the training program for the legal staff for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. He also served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Congressional Committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. In his professional career, Tanenbaum has never lost a felony case. His courtroom experiences bring his books to life, especially in his bestselling series featuring prosecutor Roger “Butch” Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi.
Tanenbaum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of California at Berkeley on a basketball scholarship, and remained at Cal, where he earned his law degree from the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law. After graduating from Berkeley Law, Tanenbaum moved back to New York to work as an assistant district attorney under the legendary New York County DA Frank Hogan. Tanenbaum then served as Deputy Chief Counsel in charge of the Congressional investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The blockbuster novel Corruption of Blood (1994), is a fictionalized account of his experience in Washington, D.C.
Tanenbaum returned to the West Coast and began to serve in public office. He was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in 1986 and twice served as the mayor of Beverly Hills. It was during this time that Tanenbaum began his career as a novelist, drawing from the many fascinating stories of his time as a New York ADA. His successful debut novel, No Lesser Plea (1987), introduces Butch Karp, an assistant district attorney who is battling for justice, and Marlene Ciampi, his associate and love interest. Tanenbaum’s subsequent twenty-two novels portrayed Karp and his crime fighting family and eclectic colleagues facing off against drug lords, corrupt politicians, international assassins, the mafia, and hard-core violent felons.
He has had published eight recent novels as part of the series, as well as two nonfiction titles: The Piano Teacher (1987), exploring his investigation and prosecution of a recidivist psychosexual killer, and Badge of the Assassin (1979), about his prosecution of cop killers, which was made into a movie starring James Woods as Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum and his wife of forty-three years have three children. He currently resides in California where he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the Boalt Hall School of Law and maintains a private law practice.
Tanenbaum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of California at Berkeley on a basketball scholarship, and remained at Cal, where he earned his law degree from the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law. After graduating from Berkeley Law, Tanenbaum moved back to New York to work as an assistant district attorney under the legendary New York County DA Frank Hogan. Tanenbaum then served as Deputy Chief Counsel in charge of the Congressional investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The blockbuster novel Corruption of Blood (1994), is a fictionalized account of his experience in Washington, D.C.
Tanenbaum returned to the West Coast and began to serve in public office. He was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in 1986 and twice served as the mayor of Beverly Hills. It was during this time that Tanenbaum began his career as a novelist, drawing from the many fascinating stories of his time as a New York ADA. His successful debut novel, No Lesser Plea (1987), introduces Butch Karp, an assistant district attorney who is battling for justice, and Marlene Ciampi, his associate and love interest. Tanenbaum’s subsequent twenty-two novels portrayed Karp and his crime fighting family and eclectic colleagues facing off against drug lords, corrupt politicians, international assassins, the mafia, and hard-core violent felons.
He has had published eight recent novels as part of the series, as well as two nonfiction titles: The Piano Teacher (1987), exploring his investigation and prosecution of a recidivist psychosexual killer, and Badge of the Assassin (1979), about his prosecution of cop killers, which was made into a movie starring James Woods as Tanenbaum.
Tanenbaum and his wife of forty-three years have three children. He currently resides in California where he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the Boalt Hall School of Law and maintains a private law practice.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
February 5, 2013
If only the first 3/4 of this novel did not make it to print, this would have been an interesting, exciting story. The first 3/4 contains too many mis-leading events and redundancy. It also contains way too much racism, rape, religion, incest, manipulation, Alzheimer's, lies, Rockman and Lucy Karp. This story would have been much better focusing on the two characters who go sleuthing after some crooked cops and their interesting experiences. It could have been better and it WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE without the final 1/4. That’s why, despite the wasteful first 3/4 I grade this 5 of 10 stars.
May 23, 2019
This was not one of my favorite in this series but I still love this family and the crazy that just falls around them! This book sorta is about 911 and the Central Park jogger case. That’s what I love most about this series it brings real life into the fictional world.
July 16, 2011
Excruciating, awful, can't believe I read this.
It's the Central Park jogger case, re-imagined and moved to Coney Island, but told from such a suffocatingly ideological standpoint (of the right wing variety) that you can hardly follow the thriller part. For instance, there are three rape cases in the book and in two of them, conniving women are faking rape to ensnare men. Another instance, the main character, a Jewish DA, takes the night off to teach a bar mitzvah class for his two sons and chooses as his topic: Jesus, the most important Jew of all. Oh, and even when you're not choking on the political slant, the story is so god-damned improbable...there is, for instance, an army of religious zealot mole people living below Manhattan who manage to foil a Muslim plot to bomb Times Square. I actually quite enjoy the occasional mindless thriller, but this one was just terrible.
It's the Central Park jogger case, re-imagined and moved to Coney Island, but told from such a suffocatingly ideological standpoint (of the right wing variety) that you can hardly follow the thriller part. For instance, there are three rape cases in the book and in two of them, conniving women are faking rape to ensnare men. Another instance, the main character, a Jewish DA, takes the night off to teach a bar mitzvah class for his two sons and chooses as his topic: Jesus, the most important Jew of all. Oh, and even when you're not choking on the political slant, the story is so god-damned improbable...there is, for instance, an army of religious zealot mole people living below Manhattan who manage to foil a Muslim plot to bomb Times Square. I actually quite enjoy the occasional mindless thriller, but this one was just terrible.
November 22, 2025
So many plot lines in one story that seamlessly flow together! A woman is raped while jogging on the beach past the Coney Island Pier. Years later, a lawyer (majoring in frivolous lawsuits) decides to sue the city for wrongful imprisonment on behalf of the Coney Island four. He makes backroom deals with the City's attorney and a district attorney to get the officers involved removed of duty, withhold and manipulate evidence, to insure a big payday. One such piece of evidence was a letter written by an imprisoned member of the Russian mob who found the crime so heinous he was compelled to write to the DA. His twin brother was killed in error when they tried to silence him. Meanwhile a group of terrorists have made the backroom of a mosque into their weapons storage as they prepare a major explosion under Times Square on New Year's Eve using a "dirty bomb". Two members of that mosque are friendly with Karp and Marlene's kids which results in one of their children being kidnapped. At the University, a student with the hots for her professor sets him up when he refuses her advances and accuses him of rape. Underground, a group of "downworlders" occasionally come up to sever the heads of chosen people they consider evil enough to die. The leader is someone who had terrorized the protagonists' daughter previously. Dreams of the presumed dead David Grale brought the daughter back from the West along with her fiancé and a family Native American friend. Butch is Jewish, his wife Catholic so when Karp takes his boys to synagogue for bar mitzvah class (which he is teaching) we have a nice calming break. I suggest making notes of the players to keep track of the dead and the escaped.
Read
September 22, 2020Holy crap. I found some free paperbacks at the library. The first one I tried to read is Material Witness by R. Tanenbaum. I struggled to get less than 100 pages in. It is totally racist about "mildly retarded" black criminals, the "little colored girl" receptionist, a Chinese, an oriental, and a woman who counts as "cunt candy" for the eyes. Oh yeah, and they're worried about Guatemalans having to watch the baby when Marlene goes back to work. I'm not even going to return the book to the library. When I finish this review, I'm going to throw the book away. Ugh.
August 27, 2017
A little hokey but still a good read
I always enjoy the Butch & Marlene novels. This one was a little hokey. Conflicts resolved with solutions that were a bit unbelievable. Just too pat. I'll continue to read the series though. Good outweighing the not so.
I always enjoy the Butch & Marlene novels. This one was a little hokey. Conflicts resolved with solutions that were a bit unbelievable. Just too pat. I'll continue to read the series though. Good outweighing the not so.
February 27, 2021
There were several storylines running simultaneously. I would have rated this book higher if the “terrorist” storyline had been left out; it wasn’t needed and was an unwanted distraction. The remainder of the book was excellent.
January 12, 2022
Hang on for a fast paced exciting ride!
This is one of the best books I have read in this series. It has everything you expect from Marlene Ciampi and Butch Karp. Murder, conspiracy, crooked attorneys and even terrorists. Oh, love and families. Excellent!
This is one of the best books I have read in this series. It has everything you expect from Marlene Ciampi and Butch Karp. Murder, conspiracy, crooked attorneys and even terrorists. Oh, love and families. Excellent!
March 31, 2018
Not the greatest book in this series. I like these characters, but this book seemed less vivid than most in the series.
April 6, 2020
Another good book in the series. Lucy is all grown up
September 24, 2020
Not as good as”Hoax”. Disappointed. This ending could easily have been added to previous novel. Will not read the next in this series.
April 16, 2021
I had a hard time following all the storylines. I did love the main characters and their craziness & often strange lifestyle.
The ending was better, but too many storyline for me.
The ending was better, but too many storyline for me.
October 11, 2022
love love love this crazy amity and their friends
Once again Mr Tanenbaum amazes me with he complex adventures that the Karp family seems to always be in. On to the next one.
Once again Mr Tanenbaum amazes me with he complex adventures that the Karp family seems to always be in. On to the next one.
December 30, 2020
Great read
Loved the Book. It keeps you wanting more. If you haven checked out Karps story, it's very interesting & you will not be sorry
Loved the Book. It keeps you wanting more. If you haven checked out Karps story, it's very interesting & you will not be sorry
February 28, 2018
Fury was my introduction to Robert Tanenbaum's work. Concept wise Fury is a decent multithreaded creation. The work uses simple words and a simple plot where the reader is always in the know with no surprises. The plot threads cross here and there but not with the skill of what one would expect of an accomplished matured writer with multiple works in his portfolio.
I hope his other works are better imagined and rendered, but this one is unapologetically flagrantly racist and misogynistic. The reader's mind shrinks more than it grows in reward for the efforts of reading through this work. The Black characters in this work should have been too embarrassingly one dimensional & unbelievable even for an author with a willful social defamation agenda, whether or not that was Tanenbaum's ulterior motive. Blacks in Fury's world are undeserving academic frauds, liars, cheats, murderers, ruthless, mindless criminals, haters of whites, endlessly fulminating anti-white unrighteous indignation that earns them good Liberal press, and are grossly physically unattractive. Women in the world of Fury, are cast as liars, gold diggers, frauds with fake rape cases and as condemnable zealots who knowingly legally defend fake rape cases.
White males in this book are heroic, flawless, wise cracking, street justice gun-slinging vigilantes, and engage with women primarily as sex objects when the women in the book are not lying about being raped (except when raped by Blacks & Hispanics in which case they are paragons of virtue brutally beaten literally to blindness with rebar to within an inch of life) or defending a client known to be falsely accusing an innocent White Russian poet of rape after drugging him & staging it for extortion.
With the exception of two Black youth characters wrongfully accused of rape (the book’s recurring theme) by a spiteful scorned young Black woman character, the author is unable to imagine & portray a singular adult Black character as worthy or noble even as a "spear holder" or a "tree prop" in this work that is in many ways comparable (complexity wise) to an elementary school staging. All formally educated Blacks are deeply flawed social dangers too - an Angie Davis styled lawyer is a conspirator on the take in a cabal of corrupt Black attorneys & a former HS valedictorian defendant is a lying conniving criminally convicted rapist.
There are crooked white cops on the take and a grandfather who murders his wife in her sleep because he can't cope with her Alzheimer's & refuses to seek help for her. Yet there is plenty of empathy and redemption extended to these characters despite their flaws.
If you want a good challenging read that transports you or elevates your world view or changes your life, this isn't it, however it serves well as a fascinating view into the insights of the extreme unlearned mindset that cannot (or will not) see another perspective or conceive of virtue and vice as more evenly intrinsically distributed across the entire human species. Through all this awful context, he seems to convey (sole reason for my 2 stars instead of 1) a strangled message at least, that there is hope for a better society to come through Black & white youth color blind alliances in America. Surprisingly, Native American & Vietnamese minor characters also receive an affirming nod & an anachronistic cowboy character offers an enjoyable comic relief.
Otherwise, fittingly, 1/3 of the story unfolds predictably with a toxicity as dangerous to American society as the antagonists it depicts mindlessly conspiring in blind allegiance to insane ideology to harm as many as they can, ironically enough, literally in the dark sewers of New York.
I hope his other works are better imagined and rendered, but this one is unapologetically flagrantly racist and misogynistic. The reader's mind shrinks more than it grows in reward for the efforts of reading through this work. The Black characters in this work should have been too embarrassingly one dimensional & unbelievable even for an author with a willful social defamation agenda, whether or not that was Tanenbaum's ulterior motive. Blacks in Fury's world are undeserving academic frauds, liars, cheats, murderers, ruthless, mindless criminals, haters of whites, endlessly fulminating anti-white unrighteous indignation that earns them good Liberal press, and are grossly physically unattractive. Women in the world of Fury, are cast as liars, gold diggers, frauds with fake rape cases and as condemnable zealots who knowingly legally defend fake rape cases.
White males in this book are heroic, flawless, wise cracking, street justice gun-slinging vigilantes, and engage with women primarily as sex objects when the women in the book are not lying about being raped (except when raped by Blacks & Hispanics in which case they are paragons of virtue brutally beaten literally to blindness with rebar to within an inch of life) or defending a client known to be falsely accusing an innocent White Russian poet of rape after drugging him & staging it for extortion.
With the exception of two Black youth characters wrongfully accused of rape (the book’s recurring theme) by a spiteful scorned young Black woman character, the author is unable to imagine & portray a singular adult Black character as worthy or noble even as a "spear holder" or a "tree prop" in this work that is in many ways comparable (complexity wise) to an elementary school staging. All formally educated Blacks are deeply flawed social dangers too - an Angie Davis styled lawyer is a conspirator on the take in a cabal of corrupt Black attorneys & a former HS valedictorian defendant is a lying conniving criminally convicted rapist.
There are crooked white cops on the take and a grandfather who murders his wife in her sleep because he can't cope with her Alzheimer's & refuses to seek help for her. Yet there is plenty of empathy and redemption extended to these characters despite their flaws.
If you want a good challenging read that transports you or elevates your world view or changes your life, this isn't it, however it serves well as a fascinating view into the insights of the extreme unlearned mindset that cannot (or will not) see another perspective or conceive of virtue and vice as more evenly intrinsically distributed across the entire human species. Through all this awful context, he seems to convey (sole reason for my 2 stars instead of 1) a strangled message at least, that there is hope for a better society to come through Black & white youth color blind alliances in America. Surprisingly, Native American & Vietnamese minor characters also receive an affirming nod & an anachronistic cowboy character offers an enjoyable comic relief.
Otherwise, fittingly, 1/3 of the story unfolds predictably with a toxicity as dangerous to American society as the antagonists it depicts mindlessly conspiring in blind allegiance to insane ideology to harm as many as they can, ironically enough, literally in the dark sewers of New York.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2014
I have read & enjoyed many of the Butch Karp / Marlene Ciampi NYC based "law & order" series by Robert K. Tannenbaum. Ripped from the headlines applies to both. But this one was a Mash Up of several stories and many older characters from earlier books. I have enjoyed following the lives of Butch & Marlene from single, junior ADA's in Manhattan to married parents of Lucy, Giancarlo and Zac. But Butch and Marlene are almost super heros in this one. It seemed like Tannenbaum phones it in. It is not a wsate if time. I finished it after all. 5/10
July 29, 2015
#17 in the NYC ADA Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series (#1-15 ghostwritten by Michael Gruber).
NYC DA "Butch" Karp & Marlene Ciampi get involved in a series of ultra-coincidently interlocking cases. Accused rape is the major theme with two innocents being accused and four guilties being released. A consortium of lawyers, municipal employees and cops skim bogus suits against the city. The Karp extended family defends against a terrorist threat.
NYC DA "Butch" Karp & Marlene Ciampi get involved in a series of ultra-coincidently interlocking cases. Accused rape is the major theme with two innocents being accused and four guilties being released. A consortium of lawyers, municipal employees and cops skim bogus suits against the city. The Karp extended family defends against a terrorist threat.
April 25, 2008
District Attorney Butch Karp must defend New York City from a multimillion dollar law suit for wrongful imprisonment while his wife Marlene Ciampi investigates a case involving a Russian professor accused of raping a student.
Seventeenth in a series. A fast-paced and engrossing read. Next installment already setup at the end of this book. Highly recommend.
Seventeenth in a series. A fast-paced and engrossing read. Next installment already setup at the end of this book. Highly recommend.
November 26, 2014
I rather enjoyed this latest tale in the life of Butch, Marlene and friends despite its improbable ending (it is fiction after all). I think I liked that it wasn't as interwoven and convoluted as some of their previous outings. I also liked that the terrorist plot wasn't on their radar until it was almost too late.
July 25, 2013
#17 in the Butch Karp - Marlene Ciampi series brings back a couple of engaging characters from #16 (Hoax). I still find the bad guys too purely evil, and I still miss the fine hand of Michael Gruber (who edited/polished/ghosted) earlier volumes in the series, but this is still a fast-paced story that was hard to put down.
November 21, 2013
Disappointing. I generally enjoy the Ciampi/Karp books but this one was incredibly disjointed with two major and several minor subplots which didn't work together. Actually, they didn't even make sense together. This should have been two different books, instead it seems like more of a mash up than a novel.
September 13, 2010
I thought this was a very disjunct book. I had the feeling that when he would run out of ideas relating to a particular character or part of the story so he would introduce a new character. I read about 125 pages and gave up. I don't think I'll be reading another Tenenbaum book anytime soon!
November 5, 2010
The opening chapter was really gruesome and had me hooked to see what would come of it. But all in all, it wasn't that thrilling of a book. I didn't realize until the end that it's part of a series of the 1 main character so maybe had I read them in order I would've enjoyed it more.
July 11, 2007
Well I've caught up in this series. Not one of the better ones.
January 17, 2009
Really enjoyed it.
March 10, 2009
May you never attack Marlene Ciampi's kids, or you will feel her Fury unleashed. The incredible length some will go to protect their kids. She's an amazing mom. Just a bit on the extreme side....
May 13, 2010
Great author..suspense= A+++++++. Reading the entire series from the begining and loving every minute!
June 23, 2010
Story begins with the rape and beating of a young woman while running
on the beach at Coney Island. It gets rather confusing and unrealistic
from there. I didn't finish it.
on the beach at Coney Island. It gets rather confusing and unrealistic
from there. I didn't finish it.
July 31, 2011
not so hot..
August 27, 2011
Too much violence...and they kept re-telling the same violent event again and again. On to other books which offer so much more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews