Robert K. Tanenbaum Books In Order

Butch Karp & Marlene Ciampi Books In Publication Order

  1. No Lesser Plea (1987)
  2. Depraved Indifference (1989)
  3. Immoral Certainty (1991)
  4. Reversible Error (1992)
  5. Material Witness (1993)
  6. Justice Denied (1994)
  7. Corruption of Blood (1995)
  8. Falsely Accused (1996)
  9. Irresistible Impulse (1997)
  10. Reckless Endangerment (1998)
  11. Act of Revenge (1999)
  12. True Justice (1999)
  13. Enemy Within (2001)
  14. Absolute Rage (2002)
  15. Resolved (2003)
  16. Hoax (2004)
  17. Fury (2005)
  18. Counterplay (2006)
  19. Malice (2007)
  20. Escape (2008)
  21. Capture (2009)
  22. Betrayed (2010)
  23. Outrage (2011)
  24. Bad Faith (2012)
  25. Tragic (2013)
  26. Fatal Conceit (2014)
  27. Trap (2015)
  28. Infamy (2017)
  29. Without Fear or Favor (2017)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Badge of the Assassin (With: Philip Rosenberg) (1979)
  2. The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer (With: Peter S. Greenberg) (1989)
  3. Echoes of My Soul (2013)

Butch Karp & Marlene Ciampi Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Robert K. Tanenbaum Books Overview

No Lesser Plea

When crafty Mandeville Lewis’s method of robbing liquor stores finally fell apart, he hired the best defense lawyer in New York and had a conveniently timed nervous breakdown. Coincides with Tanenbaum’s new September release, Depraved Indifference from NAL.

Depraved Indifference

In his second novel starring New York Assistant D.A. Butch Karp, the author of No Lesser Plea presents a gritty and suspenseful thriller centering on Karp’s dogged pursuit of a master terrorist.

Immoral Certainty

Assistant D.A. Butch Karp and his colleage Marlene Ciampi investigate the suspect in three savage murders and follow a trail of murder and insanity from a posh day care center to the Mafia to a monstrous killer. AB. LJ. K.

Reversible Error

Assistant D.A. Butch Karp, his tough as nails lover, Marlene Ciampi, and three maverick cops track a serial rapist and a ruthless killer through the streets of New York City.

Material Witness

The detecting duo of Assistant D.A. Butch Karp and his pregnant wife, Marlene Ciampi, goes undercover to solve the murder of a professional basketball player, a crime that displays unexpected political and underworld ramifications. PW.

Justice Denied

Homicide Bureau Chief Butch Karp and his dedicated A.D.A. wife, Marlene Ciampi have their hands full in a city of political terrorism, paid assassins, muggers, shysters, and a Mafia muscle man.

Corruption of Blood

When Congress reopens the investigation into the JFK assassination, Manhattan Assistant D.A. Butch Karp is assigned to the case, but as Karp and his team uncover dramatic new evidence, they become enmeshed in a web of conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of government.

Falsely Accused

Now with a powerful New York law firm, Butch Karp finds himself battling his former employer, City Hall, in the name of the city’s chief medical examiner. Meanwhile, his wife Marlene has opened a private detective agency specializing in protection from domestic violence. But even though their careers seem miles apart, a series of shocking crimes will merge their two situations into one sprawling case of sinister corruption and cold blooded murder!.

Irresistible Impulse

National bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum brings Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi back in his latest thriller of street justice and courtroom intrigue! Butch, the chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, faces the toughest legal challenge of his career, facing off against one of the most brilliant defense lawyers in America in a murder trial laced with racial overtones. Meanwhile his private detective wife Marlene has her own hands full seeking a stalker who preys on the weak and vulnerable. Their relationship will be put to the test as the pressure of the two cases mount and collide into the hottest controversy New York City has ever seen! Over 5 million copies of Robert K. Tanenbaum’s books in print! Irresistible Impulse is the ninth novel to feature the husband and wife team of Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Will be published to coincide with Robert K. Tanenbaum’s new Dutton hardcover, Reckless Endangerment Starred review in Publishers Weekly

Reckless Endangerment

Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi discover themselves working on two sides of the same case when a set of double homicides rocks downtown Manhattan. A bloody warning scrawled on the wall above a murdered elderly couple sends the Jewish community reeling into a tension filled confrontation with the city’s Arab population. In neighboring Brooklyn, a 16 year old Arab runaway seeks refuge in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, where she becomes caught up in the ugly world of prostitution and drugs. After murderously defending herself against a malicious pimp, she escapes into a woman’s shelter on the Lower East Side, into the helping hands of Marlene. As special prosecutor, Butch joins the hunt for the double murderers, finding himself in conflict with his own Jewish heritage, and with the realization that Marlene’s case is inextricably linked with his own. As tensions build and fear escalates, New York City becomes a powderkeg of twisted emotions in a case of kill or be killed.

Act of Revenge

With over seven million copies of his novels in print, national bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum has consistently demonstrated his rare ability to write colorful, morally complex, deeply authentic, and highly suspenseful thrillers. In Act of Revenge, his finest and most dramatically rich novel to date, Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, the married couple who have been described by the Chicago Tribune as ‘the most interesting pair of characters in the suspense genre,’ must pursue, survive, and triumph over two of New York’s toughest and most dangerous criminal forcesthe Mafia and the Chinese gangs. As a chief assistant district attorney with a formidable, hard earned reputation as a brilliant and fearless prosecutor, Karp takes on a difficult, complicated case involving the slaying of Ed Catalano, a capo in the Bollano family. At first the killing appears to be a continuation of old style wars between Mob families, until Willie Lai, leader of a Chinese gang called the Ghost Dragons, tells Karp that he and his cohorts were involved. Then the case takes yet another unexpected turnKarp’s twelve year old daughter witnesses a gang killing in Chinatown and is now a target herself. And complicating the investigation further is the obstructive and politically ambitious U.S. attorney who wants to use the Mob murder to advance his own career. Karp must discover whether the Mob and the Chinese gangs have gone to war as allies or enemies, who is trying to kill his daughter, who really murdered Catalano, and whether the war will create a bloody battlefield that could engulf the whole city. His wife, Marlene, a private security consultant who specializes in protecting women from stalkers and murderous significant others, has plenty to handle with her own family, yet is drawn into an investigation of the decades old death of a notorious Mob lawyer. As she digs further, getting closer to the Mob’s secret and shocking motives behind the murder, she, too, finds her life in jeopardy. As the danger, violence, and complexity of their parallel investigations escalate, Karp and Marlene risk more than they ever have, driven by their moral code and passion for the law. Act of Revenge is Robert K. Tanenbaum’s most full blooded and passionate book yet, a story that raises his fiction to a new, unforgettable level. The novel combines classic storytelling with real life characters and issues that matter now, and always will.

True Justice

New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum has more than seven million copies of his finely crafted and morally complex novels in print. In True Justice, he reaches new heights with a compellingly authentic and penetrating story pulled right form today’s most controversial headlines. For Butch Karp, chief assistant district attorney for New York County, the nightmare begins when a shocking act of negligence results in homicide. Goaded by the media’s sensational publicity, the public is screaming for blood, and Karp’s boss, D.A. Jack Keegan, is listening. He has ordered the prosecution of a fifteen year old for murder, intent on making a very public example of the girl. A Hispanic from a poor neighborhood, she’s an easy mark for big city bureaucracy and bigotry. It is Butch Karp’s unpleasant job to see that the prosecution gives the public what it wants: a quick and thorough administration of hard line justice. Complicating matters further is Butch’s wife, Marlene Ciampi, a private investigator who has decided to return to practicing law. Her first case takes her a few hundred miles south to a small Delaware town, where an equally unspeakable tragedy has taken place. Marlene, however, has the unenviable task of taking on a politically ambitious local prosecutor who is pressing to charge a suburban teenager with capital murder. With Butch and Marlene squaring off on opposite sides of an increasingly incendiary national debate, things couldn’t get any more tense…
until a shocking turn of events puts their daughter, Lucy, at the center of a horrifying crime. Suddenly, everything they believe in is challenged, and they are drawn into a maelstrom of big city politics and small town values, where justice is sacrificed to the twin gods of public perception and expediency and Karp must struggle to salvage his self respect, his career, and his life.

Enemy Within

Acclaimed ‘New York Times’ bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum ratchets up the suspense with an authentic and morally complex mystery set deep inside the New York City police department. When a black man is shot multiple times in the back on the streets of New York by an NYPD golden boy, chaos erupts throughout the city. And in an election year a year of secret handshakes and politically motivated favors no one feels the pressure more than the men and women who vow to protect and to serve. For Butch Karp, chief assistant district attorney for New York County, bullet holes aren’t the only holes in this volatile case, nor in a second shocking puzzle…
A slow witted young man faces the death penalty for murdering a Jewish diamond merchant. Karp is quickly learning that politics mean a lot more than justice when it becomes apparent certain higher ups would rather whitewash the truth than lose the Jewish vote. Add a serial killer who is murdering the homeless to Karp’s daily grind, and it’s clear he is surrounded by high profile time bombs that are promising to blow the city to its core. To make matters worse, Karp’s wife, Marlene Ciampi, has become independently wealthy thanks to the Internet stock boom and has decided to enjoy her newly acquired fortune through manic shopping sprees and free flowing alcohol. Plus, his daughter, Lucy, is skipping school to feed the homeless not far from where the slasher stalks his prey. Desperate to stop the violence before it touches his family, Karp must wade through a system of corruption and conspiracy that threatens to silence his pursuit of the truth…
forever.

Absolute Rage

New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum delivers his grittiest, most ethically challenging thriller yet, as New York chief assistant district attorney Butch Karp fights for his family in the wilds of West Virginia’s coal mining country. While New York City sizzles beneath a blanket of early summer humidity, the Karp family is happily taking refuge in their renovated farmhouse on Long Island’s north shore. Karp’s battles against the City’s corrupt politicians are never ending. His wife, Marlene, is training guard dogs on their picturesque acreage; Lucy is enjoying her summer break from Boston College and playing the part of the dutiful daughter, assisting with the running of the business and tending to her rambunctious twin brothers. The tide quickly changes, however, when Marlene befriends her beachside neighbor, Rose Wickham Heeney, a northeastern aristocrat turned wife of West Virginia coal mine union leader Ralph ‘Red’ Heeney. Soon after the fun filled weeks of family barbecues and lazy afternoons with the Heeneys, the Karps discover that Rose, Red, and their daughter, Lizzie, have been brutally murdered back home in McCullensburg. Irresistible force meets immovable object when the West Virginia governor appoints Karp as special prosecutor to bring justice to the corrupt town, its union chieftain, and his band of merry thugs. Marlene joins Karp as he searches for the killers and works to save his own family from an evil that runs as deep as the mines that fuel it.

Resolved

Tanenbaum’s done it again: Resolved is a complex, suspenseful tale of justice in the Big Apple, as a vengeful and sad*istic killer sets his sights on the man who put him away New York Chief Assistant District Attorney Butch Karp. The fifteenth installment in Robert K. Tanenbaum’s blistering New York Times bestselling series sees Karp up against one of his most frightening tests, and the stakes have never been higher. A convicted killer named Felix Tighe has escaped from prison and has vowed to hunt down and execute the NYPD detectives who arrested him years ago. But there’s more Tighe’s also planning a fight to the death with Chief Assistant District Attorney Butch Karp, the man who put him away. Felix Tighe’s laser focused, obsessive hatred of Karp has simmered during his prison confinement, where he has spent time with Feisal Abdel Ridwan, a radical Islamic fundamentalist and their sordid connection only fuels his loathing of Karp. Now out of prison, with an assumed identity, and dangerously seeking payback, Felix stalks Karp to the very heart of his family as he plans a demonic assault on Karp’s daughter, Lucy. Rippling with action, and full of Tanenbaum’s trademark twists and turns, Resolved is a must read novel which roils with post 9 11 malevolence and searing New York scenes. As Karp faces his toughest assignment yet and with his fearless and complex private detective wife Marlene Ciampi at his side Resolved builds to an almost unbearable climax at Karp’s ‘office,’ Manhattan’s central courthouse.

Hoax

New York District Attorney Butch Karp goes head to head with a crooked wannabe mayor, the rap underworld, and rogue churchmen in yet another pile driving thriller in the New York Times bestselling series. When a rap impresario is gunned down in his limo in New York City, it appears that gang related violence has reared its ugly head once again. But nothing’s as it seems in this taut, virtuoso thriller from the pen of Robert K. Tanenbaum. For a start, there’s the long tentacles of Andrew Kane, a man who would be mayor, a man who wants to control the power elite like pawns, and a man who has terrible secrets, and knows worse about his friends and foes alike. In addition, the Catholic Church is about to face some secrets of its own, especially when Karp’s wife, Marlene, rehabilitating at a Taos, New Mexico art colony, stumbles upon a sex abuse murder scandal brewing in a nearby church retreat. Eventually, the action swings back to a roiled New York, where evidence surfaces connecting rogue priests to murdered kids. Hoax features enough sensational plot twists, heart racing action, and brilliant crime solving to fill ten books, as Karp attempts to untangle the web of violence and! corruption, both of which threaten his career, and the lives of his family.

Fury

The seventeenth book in the bestselling ‘Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi’ series opens in Brooklyn, with the brutal rape of a female jogger whose assailants are convicted and later exonerated. Now, the guilty are filing a multi million dollar lawsuit against the city of New York, the police, and the two assistant DAs who tried the case. While the police and the criminal justice system are under media assault, Karp has suspicions that there is corruption within his own office. Karp and Marlene are on a mission to restore the system’s lost dignity, bring the rapists to justice, and destroy the terrorist cell that threatens the city. All the while, terrorists are planning to blow the roof off Times Square on New Year’s Eve. As Karp looks more deeply into how the system appears to be undermined, he unearths a tangled web involving corruption, courtroom confrontations and conscience. Fans of Butch Karp, as well as the classic New York crime drama, will find plenty to sink their teeth into with ‘Fury’.

Counterplay

Tanenbaum’s last novel, Fury, ended with a breathtaking cliff hanger. Now readers can enjoy the exciting conclusion bursting with more suspenseful twists in his latest, Counterplay. When betrayal results in the cold blooded murder of a busload of school children to accomplish the escape from custody of vicious sociopath Andrew Kane, New York District Attorney Butch Karp finds himself embroiled in a raging quest for vengeance that could cost him, his family, and thousands of others their lives. Yet again, Robert K. Tanenbaum writes a masterful thriller involving the most memorable and ‘un put downable’ stories of corruption and courtroom confrontations. Counterplay, the latest book in the bestselling Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi series, proves to be another full bodied, riveting page turner with yet another cliff hanger not soon to be forgotten.

Malice

The Karp family is back at it in Malice, bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum’s most suspenseful book yet in the Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi series.

New York District Attorney Butch Karp, recovering from an assassination attempt that came within a few millimeters of killing him, takes on a shadowy cartel that uses terrorists to further its criminal empire while sliding the United States toward a fascist state that the cartel controls. As Karp struggles to uncover those responsible for planning the terrorist murders of six school children, he goes to the aid of the younger brother of his college roommate, who has been unfairly suspended from his position as baseball coach at a university in Idaho.

Meanwhile, Marlene Ciampi is in Idaho to help her husband with the investigation, and she befriends a Basque sheepherder who is demanding answers to the disappearance of his daughter a pretty college coed he suspects is having an affair with the school’s president which may be related to Karp’s case. And if that wasn’t enough, the couple’s daughter, Lucy, and her eclectic group of accomplices must uncover a traitor’s plot and stop an assassination attempt surreptitiously planned to occur in the heart of Manhattan.

Malice is filled with twists and story lines torn from today’s headlines, and once again delivers Tanenbaum’s one of a kind courtroom scenes that, by the exciting climax, have been woven into a single, brilliant tapestry of action and suspense.

Escape

Escape is a classic encounter between the forces of good and evil in human form that asks, and answers, questions of how to deal with supposedly God inspired acts of murder and mayhem. In a riveting trial of garish courtroom confrontations, newly elected New York District Attorney Karp battles the insanity of the insanity defense, as he tries to make Jessica Campbell, a rabble rousing political science professor at NYU, pay for the murder of her three children. While Campbell claims that God told her to send her three children to Him, it is up to Karp to prove that she was fully aware of the nature and consequences of her actions. Meanwhile, an Islamic terrorist, The Sheik, and his homegrown suicidal jihadis hatch a plan, a spectacular outrage to occur in Manhattan’s heartland, that if successful could destroy the economy of the United States and the world. Standing between the terrorist Sheik and his diabolical scheme are Butch s wife, Marlene Ciampi, a private detective focused on protecting women from abusers; the couple s daughter, Lucy, who has joined a secretive anti terrorist organization; and a wonderfully eccentric but effective group of crime fighters as has ever graced the pages of a book.

Capture

When a rising starlet from Spanish Harlem dies from a gunshot wound in the fashionable downtown penthouse of an eccentric and famous Broadway producer, New York District Attorney Roger ‘Butch’ Karp and his hard charging, crime fighting wife, Marlene Ciampi, smell drama. Karp is outraged at claims by the producer and his high powered attorney that the ‘troubled’ actress committed suicide. With the help of a fearful witness who Marlene convinces to speak out, Karp wages a relentless battle for justice against a notorious defendant, a legion of experts, and a barrage of hostile threats.

Meanwhile, a shadowy international power group called the Sons of Man kidnaps Karp’s daughter, Lucy, as she attempts to thwart the latest terrorist threat against New York City. Karp races to decode a baffling series of riddles left behind by the group’s mastermind, his longtime enemy, to uncover the terrorists’ true target and save Lucy from certain death. The key may lie within the fevered mind of David Grale, a half mad religious vigilante who has mysteriously retreated beneath the city.

Hunted by a beautiful but deadly Russian assassin, Karp and his eclectic band of accomplices must infiltrate the Sons of Man before the group’s scheme for world dominion succeeds. But, little does Karp know: the clock is ticking down on New York City as an invisible force prepares to unleash Armageddon.

With more than twelve million copies of his books in print, Robert K. Tanenbaum is a true ‘master of the legal thriller’ Vincent Bugliosi whose yanked from the headlines adventures keep readers rapt until each breathtaking conclusion.

Betrayed

From the dark fantasies of a sexual underworld to the darkest realities of a terrorist conspirator, New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum draws District Attorney Butch Karp deep into a combustible courtroom game of politics, power, lies, and murder. Awaiting trial in the Tombs, Manhattan’s infamous criminal detention complex, is Sharif Jabbar, the demagogic founder of a Harlem mosque. Charges against his terrorist attack on the city were dismissed once, and now that the Islam convert is being held on new allegations, New York District Attorney Roger Butch Karp is determined to bring him down. He faces formidable competition. Attorney Megan O Dowd, a radical activist enthralled with revolutionary rhetoric, is going to the mat with the uncompromising conviction that Jabbar is being railroaded by the NYPD. Outside the criminal courts, Karp s wife, Marlene Ciampi, is pursuing her own investigation. Allegations against indigent Manhattan street vendor Dirty Warren in the murder of society beauty Michelle Oakley don t sit right with Marlene. Unfortunately her sole ally is religious vigilante David Grale, the charismatic but deranged leader of the Mole People. What Grale knows about city corruption snakes as far and wide as the dank honeycomb of the sewers and tunnels his destitute army calls home. Then Marlene discovers an unexpected and ugly parallel between the Oakley murder and the disappearance of another debutante: a treacherous underworld of upscale call girls and the price paid for indulging the wealthiest of men. As she explores these sordid truths, Butch Karp navigates his own tortured waters. What he soon discovers is that everyone, from the conspiratorial Jabbar and O Dowd to the city s most powerful, unimpeachable players has a secret that could either set them free or cost them more than they ever feared. With more than twelve million copies of his books in print, Robert K. Tanenbaum continues to rivet readers to their seats with the kind of explosive thrillers that have made him a writer worth knowing Washington Post .

Outrage

Months after a brutal double homicide in uptown Manhattan shocks the city, sensational newspaper headlines herald the arrest and indictment of Felix Acevedo, a shy Bronx teenager who confessed to the horrific crimes. But downtown, in the district attorney’s office, Butch Karp is seething. No sooner does he bask in the relief of successfully closing the case on murderous imam Sharif Jabbar than he is thrust into the center of a high profile prosecution that threatens the integrity of his office. An ambitious young assistant district attorney, seeking career advancement, cuts corners to indict Acevedo, disregarding Karp s fundamental rule: Never charge the accused unless the evidence leads inexorably to proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, damned by a coerced confession and a frenzied media bent on lynching him, Acevedo sits in jail while a vicious killer stalks the city. Karp s wife, Marlene Ciampi, one half of the crime fighting family proclaimed by the media, hits the streets for clues that will save the unjustly accused defendant. What she discovers puts her on the trail of the true perpetrator a drug addicted psychopath with an ax to grind and a disgruntled police detective who is willing to lie, withhold evidence, and kill to be labeled a hero. But it also puts her in the center of a dangerous race to be the last man standing and if she s not careful, one of the other players will take the prize. From the gruesome crime scene to a trial that will leave listeners on the edge of their seats, Robert K. Tanenbaum s unstoppable novel unfolds at breakneck speed as Karp and Ciampi fight for justice in a dramatic and challenging case that will thrill listeners to the bone.

Bad Faith

In the latest exciting novel in Robert K. Tanenbaum’s bestselling series Butch Karp takes an ailing boy s religious parents to court for refusing to get their son medical help. In Bad Faith, two gripping story lines that could have been torn out of today s headlines meet at the intersection of religion and medical ethics. In the first, Butch battles to convict the parents of a deceased boy for failing to seek medical attention for their son, who believed, wrongly, that prayer was the answer for healing his rare but treatable brain disease. At the same time, Marlene investigates the charismatic demagogue Reverend McCord, who has an undeniable grasp on the parents. Meanwhile, a beautiful but deadly Russian incarcerated assassin, Nadya Malovo, works with Karp from behind bars to prevent a violent attack on New York City. But she harbors a secret vendetta against Karp for interfering in her past crimes, and can t be trusted This action packed, edge of your seat thriller will leave fans turning pages into the night. The former Homicide Bureau Chief in the New York District Attorney s office, Robert Tanenbaum is also the former two term mayor of Beverly Hills and one of the country s most successful and famous trial lawyers: He has never lost a felony case. His novels are chock full of real facts, gleaned from so many of his life experiences each is a breathtaking treat.

Badge of the Assassin (With: Philip Rosenberg)

A blood-chilling true-crime account from former district attorney and New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum

BADGE OF THE ASSASSIN

They were just doing their jobs — serving and protecting — when the unimaginable happened: Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini became moving targets, ambushed from behind at a Manhattan housing project. Jones lay dead in a pool of his own blood, and Piagentini lived long enough to beg for his life — before he was riddled with twenty-two bullet holes by members of a deadly hit squad hell-bent on taking out the men and women of law enforcement.

Masterfully building suspense on every page, Robert K. Tanenbaum reconstructs the vicious murders of Jones and Piagentini and the manhunt for the suspects, and brings to life his courtroom prosecution of the killers — revealing the triumphs and failures of America’s legal system.

The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer (With: Peter S. Greenberg)

Everybody has a dream. For aspiring actress Suzanne Reynolds, her dream ended in a gruesome encounter with eccentric New York artist Charles Yukl. Fooled by his choirboy looks, Reynolds had no idea the man who taught her the piano was a woman hating recluse who spent his days lost in fantasies of perversion. As a result of the plea bargain for Suzanne?s brutal murder, Yukl soon gained his freedom due to a shocking series of legal errors and killed again. A riveting dramatization of two horrific crimes and their aftermath, The Piano Teacher brilliantly portrays a madman set on fulfilling his own sad*istic and homicidal dreams…
and the flawed justice system that gave him the opportunities to do so.

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