Overview
As the city sizzles under the early summer sun, New York chief assistant D.A. Butch Karp and his family are happily vacationing on Long Island's north shore. Their reverie changes to horror when they learn that their beachfront neighbors, Rose and Ralph "Red" Heeney -- a coal miners' union leader -- have been brutally murdered back home in tiny McCullensburg, West Virginia. Irresistible force meets immovable object when the governor appoints Karp special prosecutor to bring justice to the corrupt rural town, its ruthless union boss, and his band of violent henchmen. Now, Karp finds himself not only searching for the killers, but fighting to protect his own family from an evil that runs as deep as the mines that fuel it.
Synopsis
In Absolute Rage, what's at stake for the incorruptible prosecutor Butch Karp is nothing less than his personal code of honor—the imperative that drives him to protect his family above all else. A fast-rising, blue-collar Teamster with designs in the union presidency has been murdered in the mountains of West Virginia, along with his wife and youngest child. Karp is wary from the start about wading into such a politically dicey situation—and his fears are chillingly justified when killers target his own beloved family. Left to negiotiate a path through the deadly maelstrom of big-city corruption, Karp alone must restore justice—and save his family.
Publishers Weekly
The Karps kick the rubes, but don't emerge unscathed in the 14th installment of the successful Karp/Ciampi series. As in previous novels, the ball gets rolling with the meddling of the brainy and unstable Marlene Ciampi, who against her better judgment ("Don't get involved, tattoo it on your forehead, Ciampi!") falls for a New York neighbor's sob story about a long-simmering family feud in a West Virginia coal town. The sudden savage murders back in West Virginia of the neighbor and her daughter and her labor-agitator husband bring both Marlene and her husband, Butch Karp, down to the boonies in their legal capacity. Their teenage daughter, nun-in-training Lucy, falls hard for the neighbor's son, and the 10-year-old twins, Zik and Zak, now growing into distinct personalities, come along for the ride. As in other novels in the series, Marlene's antics bring danger to her family's doorstep and beyond this time resulting in a real Karp family tragedy. When disaster strikes, the ever volatile Marlene goes over the edge and calls in her trusty Vietnamese thug, Tran, and his gang of gold-hungry goons, with grisly results. While the novel displays Tanenbaum's trademark humor and adept plotting, the series has definitely taken an ominous twist with this book. Marlene (never a model of sanity) is, per usual, talking to her dogs, but now they're talking back to her. The author (who seems to greatly enjoy his book-length ruminations on the dynamics of long-lived marriage) has pulled off a coup: fans of the series will breathlessly await his next book, just to see if the Karp family can actually stand itself any more. (Aug. 13) Forecast: Talk about irresistible no fan worth his or her salt will miss this earthquake of a thriller. Massive advertising (including in Times Square) and a 10-city author tour should help Tanenbaum break previous sales records. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.