I liked this one a lot. We meet Tranh, the Vietnamese guy who becomes a big part of the Karps life. He is probably one of my favorite characters. Turns out in this book, Lucy is about in the third grade, so that was cool. I thought this one was really good. I think we begin to see a heightened strain on Butch and Marlene's relationship. The stories are complex. This is a good series, and this book is no different. A review of my casting:
Butch Karp - Edward Burns
Marlene Ciampi - Maybe Marisa Tomei?
Lucy Karp - varying ages, although the true test will be who plays her when she gets a little older
Zik and Zak - doesn't matter at the moment
Harry Bello - Bruce Willis in his 16 Blocks outfit
Guma - Paul Giamatti
Roland Hrcany - still working on it, maybe Hulk Hogan?
VT Newbury - Edward Norton
Tranh - Jet Li
Clay Fulton - Morgan Freeman
That'll do for now, I suppose.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Falsely Accused
Falsely Accused, by Robert K. Tanenbaum
By to the Karps, and this was a good one. Lucy is moving into her own right as a character here. We see bits of her connection to "Sister Theresa" which gets fleshed out later. We also begin to see her ability with languages. Marlene begins her new career as a supporter of downtrodden women/security-type/enforcer. And Butch does his private case that results in his being reinstated back into the DAs office. We all see a good bit of the reporter Ariadne Stupenagel. This is another good one with several seemingly disparate plots that get woven together into the same conencted story. An old device for Tanenbaum, but one I like. And, this book did not disappoint. I liked it a lot.
By to the Karps, and this was a good one. Lucy is moving into her own right as a character here. We see bits of her connection to "Sister Theresa" which gets fleshed out later. We also begin to see her ability with languages. Marlene begins her new career as a supporter of downtrodden women/security-type/enforcer. And Butch does his private case that results in his being reinstated back into the DAs office. We all see a good bit of the reporter Ariadne Stupenagel. This is another good one with several seemingly disparate plots that get woven together into the same conencted story. An old device for Tanenbaum, but one I like. And, this book did not disappoint. I liked it a lot.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Breakpoint
Breakpoint, by Richard A. Clarke
I did not like this one much. It was a bit of a technolgical, future-scare thriller. It even included a bit at the end that it was meant to be predictive of what could happen in the near future (the book is set in 2012, I think). That's not really my cup of tea, but fine, I trudged through it, but I did not think it was very well written. It was confusing and not fast enough for a pulp fiction book. It was dense and not charming or funny at all. There was no character that I felt particularly drawn to. Oh well.
I did not like this one much. It was a bit of a technolgical, future-scare thriller. It even included a bit at the end that it was meant to be predictive of what could happen in the near future (the book is set in 2012, I think). That's not really my cup of tea, but fine, I trudged through it, but I did not think it was very well written. It was confusing and not fast enough for a pulp fiction book. It was dense and not charming or funny at all. There was no character that I felt particularly drawn to. Oh well.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Corruption of Blood
Corruption of Blood by Robert K. Tanenbaum
This was still a Karp book, but it leaned a bit into reality as Karp was brought to Washington to head up an investigation into the assassination of JFK in the late 70s, much as Robert K. Tanenbaum himself led up an investigation into the assassination of JFK in the late 70s. There is a note at the beginning of the book mentinoing this point and assuring the reader that the book is fictional, but, of course, one cannot help but be intrigued by the potential connections between what comes out in this book and what was allowed to come out of the actual investigation. For a JFK buff, I think this book would be really interesting. As a Karp buff, it falls a bit lower than some of the others I have recently read. It was still ok, but not as good as the others. And had I had no interest at all in JFK, it would have been even worse. I llok forward to the next one where things will, presumably be back to normal. One point in the continuing development of the larger picture, this book introduced us to Sweetie, the Neapolitan mastiff adopted by Marlene. A fun character throughout the series.
This was still a Karp book, but it leaned a bit into reality as Karp was brought to Washington to head up an investigation into the assassination of JFK in the late 70s, much as Robert K. Tanenbaum himself led up an investigation into the assassination of JFK in the late 70s. There is a note at the beginning of the book mentinoing this point and assuring the reader that the book is fictional, but, of course, one cannot help but be intrigued by the potential connections between what comes out in this book and what was allowed to come out of the actual investigation. For a JFK buff, I think this book would be really interesting. As a Karp buff, it falls a bit lower than some of the others I have recently read. It was still ok, but not as good as the others. And had I had no interest at all in JFK, it would have been even worse. I llok forward to the next one where things will, presumably be back to normal. One point in the continuing development of the larger picture, this book introduced us to Sweetie, the Neapolitan mastiff adopted by Marlene. A fun character throughout the series.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Justice Denied
Justice Denied, by Robert K. Tanenbaum
More good stuff from the Karps. One of the things I like out of this series is that each book contains a single contained story line that is both complex and logical. It also develops the characters outside of that story line so that the series itself is connected and flows through time. That is appealing to me. More research has revealed that the actual guy who wrote most of these, Michael Gruber, is Tanenbaum's cousin. And, one might surmise, that Butch Karp is a heroic interpretation of Tanenbaum himself. This book involves some Armenian terrorism, the second kind of terorism in the series, the first being Serbian. It also deals with Marlene developing her Rape division. It's a good read. As they mostly all are. I also think they could be turned into screenplays. Let's see...
I have already said
Edward Burns as Karp
Edward Norton as VT Newbury
Paul Giamatti as Guma
and
Blond Dewayne Johnson as Roland Hrcany
Leo from The West Wing as Harry Bello (he's skinnier than Bruce Willis)
Marlene... undecided could be Nicole Kidman? Beautiful Blond Italian who will spend most of the movies witha glass eye and destroyed fingers? Robin Wright Penn? strong character? I don't know
Lucy... still a noname child
Joe Morton as Clay Fulton
Frank Langhella as DA Bloom
some possibilities
More good stuff from the Karps. One of the things I like out of this series is that each book contains a single contained story line that is both complex and logical. It also develops the characters outside of that story line so that the series itself is connected and flows through time. That is appealing to me. More research has revealed that the actual guy who wrote most of these, Michael Gruber, is Tanenbaum's cousin. And, one might surmise, that Butch Karp is a heroic interpretation of Tanenbaum himself. This book involves some Armenian terrorism, the second kind of terorism in the series, the first being Serbian. It also deals with Marlene developing her Rape division. It's a good read. As they mostly all are. I also think they could be turned into screenplays. Let's see...
I have already said
Edward Burns as Karp
Edward Norton as VT Newbury
Paul Giamatti as Guma
and
Blond Dewayne Johnson as Roland Hrcany
Leo from The West Wing as Harry Bello (he's skinnier than Bruce Willis)
Marlene... undecided could be Nicole Kidman? Beautiful Blond Italian who will spend most of the movies witha glass eye and destroyed fingers? Robin Wright Penn? strong character? I don't know
Lucy... still a noname child
Joe Morton as Clay Fulton
Frank Langhella as DA Bloom
some possibilities
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Material Witness
Material Witness, by Robert K. Tanenbaum
I liked this one as well. We got introduced to Harry Bello, and we see Marlene start to save him from his doom. We also get to meet Lucy, who is born during the book. We still have the gay couple downstairs that disappears somewhere later in the series, they play a major role in this one. Butch takes the fall for one of his ADAs, takes a leave of absence and pursues the main crime in the book while playing for the New York "Hustlers" as a 12th man. The premise seemed a bit lame, but I chalk it up in my head to a 1970s era NBA, pre-Magic and Larry. The book was written in 1993, though, and it involved an NBA star found shot in his car with drugs. It made me think a lot of Len Bias. I wonder if there was more to that story that we never heard or if "Tanenbaum" used that as a starting point. I also saw at the beginning of this book and a couple of others, Tanenbaum thanks our other author who "is primarily responsible for this manuscript". So why did Tanenbaum's name go on it? I was thinking about why I like this series. It is graphic, but not as graphic as Patterson. The main character is cool, smart, and the dialogue is funny. The solutions to the crime are logical and meticulous. Those things appeal to me. As does this series.
I liked this one as well. We got introduced to Harry Bello, and we see Marlene start to save him from his doom. We also get to meet Lucy, who is born during the book. We still have the gay couple downstairs that disappears somewhere later in the series, they play a major role in this one. Butch takes the fall for one of his ADAs, takes a leave of absence and pursues the main crime in the book while playing for the New York "Hustlers" as a 12th man. The premise seemed a bit lame, but I chalk it up in my head to a 1970s era NBA, pre-Magic and Larry. The book was written in 1993, though, and it involved an NBA star found shot in his car with drugs. It made me think a lot of Len Bias. I wonder if there was more to that story that we never heard or if "Tanenbaum" used that as a starting point. I also saw at the beginning of this book and a couple of others, Tanenbaum thanks our other author who "is primarily responsible for this manuscript". So why did Tanenbaum's name go on it? I was thinking about why I like this series. It is graphic, but not as graphic as Patterson. The main character is cool, smart, and the dialogue is funny. The solutions to the crime are logical and meticulous. Those things appeal to me. As does this series.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Reversible Error
Reversible Error, by Robert K. Tanenbaum
This was not as good as the one before, but I still think it was better than the first two. We had some new characters, the King Cole Trio, who added some good bits of violent levity. We still have Marlene pregnant with what will become Lucy. Karp and Marlene are not yet married, though they will be soon. Bloom is still the DA and Karp is still the Criminal Courts Bureau Chief. Marlene is facing losing her job. Once again, this has two story lines, Butch's and Marlene's that run parallel. Maybe the reason this one fell a bit is that there was no connection between them. I also miss Guma's humor. I like the idea of VT. He is the money/fraud guy. The story line here follows some drug dealers getting killed and tying it up with money laundering and stocks and such. I like connections between white collar crime and street crime. It feels like reminding us that they are both criminal acts. So, I liked it. Good, but not great.
This was not as good as the one before, but I still think it was better than the first two. We had some new characters, the King Cole Trio, who added some good bits of violent levity. We still have Marlene pregnant with what will become Lucy. Karp and Marlene are not yet married, though they will be soon. Bloom is still the DA and Karp is still the Criminal Courts Bureau Chief. Marlene is facing losing her job. Once again, this has two story lines, Butch's and Marlene's that run parallel. Maybe the reason this one fell a bit is that there was no connection between them. I also miss Guma's humor. I like the idea of VT. He is the money/fraud guy. The story line here follows some drug dealers getting killed and tying it up with money laundering and stocks and such. I like connections between white collar crime and street crime. It feels like reminding us that they are both criminal acts. So, I liked it. Good, but not great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)