Fatal Conceit

June 23, 2014
When the body of Lt. Gen. Sam Allen, the acting director of the CIA, turns up dead in a boutique hotel just off Times Square, Roger “Butch” Karp investigates, in Tanenbaum’s provocative 26th legal thriller featuring the New York County DA (after 2013’s Tragic). Eight days earlier, terrorists attacked a supposed U.S. trade mission in Chechnya, killing innocent people and seizing Karp’s daughter, Lucy, a member of a secret antiterrorism group. Did agents of the current administration silence Allen to prevent the truth about the attack from going public? Butch and his family form a “team to confront, combat, and defeat evil,” determined to find out. Meanwhile, sleazebag Rod Fauhomme, the American president’s reelection campaign manager, is up to his fat neck in dangerous intrigues that grow to include several murders. Those outraged by how the government handled the 2012 debacle in Benghazi will find a lot to like. Agent: Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary Agency.

July 1, 2014
The twenty-sixth entry in the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi series brings old friends and fearsome foes back together again. Like many of former attorney Tanenbaum's recent novels, the book is split into two parts. First, a New York City crime with national and international implications. In this case, the acting director of the CIA is murdered. Turns out he was about to testify before a congressional committee that members of the U.S. government are covering up the truth about a recent terrorist attack being blamed on Chechnyan rebels. D.A. Butch Karp has a vested interest in prosecuting this case. His daughter, Lucy, was one of the hostages being held at a Chechnyan compound. Cut to the second half of the book: Butch is doing his courtroom dance, making fools of the smug politicians he believes were behind the murder. Tanenbaum shines in these positively balletic moments. Series supervillains Andrew Kane, al-Sistani, and Nadya Malovo also make appearances in this reliable thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)