Falsely Accused

Butch Karp #8

by Robert K. Tanenbaum

Battling the city on behalf of a former government employee, attorney Butch Karp finds himself working alongside his wife, Marlene, a detective specializing in domestic violence cases, when a series of shocking crimes joins their cases. Reissue.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Legal Thriller, Legal, Crime, Mystery Thriller

422 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Robert 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.

Reviews

[Nancy Ellis]

In the previous book, Butch and Marlene were temporarily living in D.C. where Butch worked on the committee investigating the Kennedy assassination. Now they are back in NYC where Butch has finally gone into private practice, a lucrative job which gives Marlene the opportunity to take time off work. Butch is representing the Chief Medical Examiner who has been fired and accused unjustly of incompetence. Working on the case leads Butch to a crime ring involving illegal immigration, the NYPD, and ultimately his former boss, the unsavory and highly unlikable District Attorney. Meanwhile, Marlene becomes involved with a friend's stalking situation, and her work with that case leads to further cases, possibly creating her new career. Along the way, she also becomes pregnant again, this time with twins.

This book was more enjoyable than the previous two. I really love the interaction between Butch and Marlene, their love for each other with humor and respect. The peripheral characters are thoroughly entertaining, especially Marlene's "partner", Harry Bello, the daughter Lucy, and even the huge dog Sweety! The villains are expertly fleshed out, possibly due to the author's personal experience in the NYC DA's office! I'm looking forward to seeing what misadventure Marlene manages to get herself into next and also how they adjust to having twins.

[Harold Kasselman]

Disturbing morality theme.

I am ambivalent about this novel. The female protagonist Marlene is a rather reprehensible character. She is a lawyer who has sworn an oath to the justice system. She, however answers to her own rules of procedure. The ends justify the means if the judicial system is unable to do the job. She is simply a vigilante who justifies heinous crimes,including murder, just as Dexter justifies his crimes. She even shares the thrill of retribution, as did Dexter. Sure, her deeds are not as ghastly as Dexter, but she wasn't born with an obsession to kill. And it appears she has passed on her moral system to her four year old daughter. As a former prosecutor, I'm a bit appalled by this character and the plot. Sure, I enjoy Liam Nissim or Denzel Washington vigilante films, but this tawdry character is no role model for the ails in society. I'm frankly disappointed in Robert Tannenbaum.

[Tgordon]

This so far has been one of my favorite of this series! Butch and Marleen and Lucy all involved. Also several mysteries that tie all together in a shocking end. Not saying much more other than a must read with tissues.

[Gary Gallucci]

Butch Karp and his wife Marlene are an interesting couple. In this novel, lawyer Karp has taken on the case of a recently and perhaps unjustly fired medical examiner. Meanwhile, Marlene has decided to start a business specializing in protecting abused women from their abusers. The real interesting aspect of this story is how whatever one is doing intersects with what the other is doing in the performance of their respective jobs. The author does a clever job of maintaining various mysteries throughout, only exposing the truth and tying everything in a nice bow in the final chapters. Little did I know that this is actually book number 8 in a series involving Butch and Marlene. Based on the pleasure garnered here, I'm considering going back and reading the previous seven.

[David]

I enjoy Tanenbaum's writing.. The major appeal for me is the odd characters. Butch is a tough-as-nails by the book attorney while his wife Marlene is a tough-as-nails but bend the rules in the book as much as possible. Both are attorneys, but Marlene moves into the field of private eye work in this novel. A great deal of the interesting characterization deals with the relationship with Butch over Marlene's over-the-top antics. As a lawyer he indicates to her that he cannot be a party to the way she bends the law in order to nail a bad guy. Marlene's new Private Eye endeavor is to help protect women who are either victims of domestic abuse or being stalked. And there are some good scenes in the book where she gives a bad guy exactly what he deserves. Marlene and Butch argue passionately about the right and wrong of her actions, how those actions impact the family, and how having a gun in the house endangers them. These are all arguments that make sense to me because they aren't arguing about money or who is going to clean up the house or pick up the kid.. but about basic moral issues that impact their private and professional lives. Good stuff.

The big attack dogs that play an important part in these books also add to the flavor. This is early in the series and the huge Mastiff is named "Sweety" and is highly trained and very intimidating. If you continue the series you will meet more of these intelligent dogs and wonder why these ultra smart dogs could not have somehow managed to play "Lassie" -- they are a different breed, but so very, very smart. Sometimes, a bit too smart.. but then that tends to make the series fun.

The plot of this book is interesting enough. Butch helps a fired medical examiner bring a lawsuit against the mayor for wrongful termination and defamation of character, etc. Marlene gets busy helping stalking victims. Marlene's reporter friend runs into a conspiracy involving shakedowns of cabbies by police and possible murder. Soon, all of the plotlines began to twist together to some extent. Seems plausible and some of the resolution is exceptional.

However, here's where I take issue. Marlene is always becoming involved in one way or another with extreme violence.. She either sanctions it or covers it up. In this novel, her daughter Lucy has a realistic looking cap pistol that is described early on-- a forewhadowing of things to come and when they do occur and Marlene covers up to protect someone... well, one just wonders how many dark secrets a woman can hide.. After all, in almost every one of these novels she covers up some ultraviolent act for herself or someone close to her.

Still, Lucy as a seven year old is an interesting character. As she grows up (in later novels) she will desmonstrate what is beginning to show in this novel, a natural linguistic talent. She will become a strongly devoted Catholic. And she will continue to prove herself to be a very intelligent and clever person.

I have more of thse novels on my "to-read" shelf and I will not give up on them.. but at least going in I will know what to expect from Marlene. It is Lucy (and later on, her brothers) that continue to amaze me and keep me coming back to the series. SUPERB characterization.

[Vannessa Anderson]

Marlene Ciampi, an attorney with the DA’s office, and her husband, Butch Karp, an assistant DA with the DA’s office have been fired. Butch takes a job with a private and distinguished law firm while Marlene stays home to raise their young daughter.

After a visit with her friend Ariadne Stupenagel, investigative reporter, Marlene feels it time to go back to work because there is not much for her to do at home since her daughter is in school full time. Marlene, along with her daughter’s godfather who quits his job with the police department, open a detective agency specializing in helping women who are being stalked. A domestic violence organization hires the two to track down former husbands and boyfriends who hurt clients living in their safehouses.

Butch takes on a case where the county’s medical examiner is fired and slandered and Butch realizes right away that politics are involved in the firing. Butch embarks upon a journey to uncover corruption in the DA’s and mayor’s office.

Falsely Accused is a great read and filled with excitement.

[Marie Lutz]

Interesting parts, including the court scenes. And I always enjoy seeing scumbags get their comeuppance. But some of the main characters didn’t seem real to me, including one of the main protagonists, Marlene, a loving mother, vigilante, former DA who knows how to break into an office, a sharpshooter who somehow can’t keep her gun from her 7-year old daughter, a woman who can kill, but we know it bothers her because she vomits after the deed. She’s also a woman religious enough to go to mass and confession, but that doesn’t stop her from breaking laws. She gets pregnant because she’s bored, but then starts a PI business. Marlene is a conglomeration of traits that don’t coalesce into a realistic human being. The 7-year old and the lying obnoxious reporter Stupenagel were also unconvincing. And why Marlene has anything to do with the untrustworthy, unsympathetic journalist is never explained beyond the hint that Marlene owes her one. But surely there should be limits when someone is willing to stab you in the back.

There are various plots that all come together by the end. If you ignore coincidences, maybe the storyline is somewhat believable.

I did like the dog Sweetie though.

[Rick Kelley]

Butch and Marlene both are involved with challenging situations and need each other's help to solve them. A very entertaining read with some older characters brought back to life with some surprising results. Faster paced and more intrigue than Corruption of Blood (Butch Karp #6). Some old scores are settled and some new victories prove to be particularly rewarding. Butch and Marlene are my new favorite team. Although I know while Butch is a 100% by the book and Marlene is more of an "End justifies the means" type of dectective I like them both equally as well. High recommendations for this book.

[Annalie]

Butch's wife Marlene takes on a new role. Might I say she becomes the avenging angel..... I enjoyed the evolving role of the Karp's daughter. My husband has been reading this series for much longer. The more he talked about these characters, the more interested I became. I am totally hooked now.

[Eric Seidel]

Typical Tanenbaum work. His legal insight is the competitive advantage in leading you through the story. He develops his characters so creatively, you feel you know them intimately yourself by the time you’re done with the story. He’s on of the few authors whose work detours me from my usual diet of interventional spy thrillers.

[Tricia]

Thank goodness for the audio library. Only so many books can be on a library shelf and so only the more current books are there. This story takes place just as Champi is starting out her pi and body guard business and Butch is working for a wall street firm. Has the usual mayhem but do so love the characters.

[Jreader]

Read it 20 plus years ago. Read it again and enjoyed it just as much. Tanenbaum is excellent. It is formulaic and who cares. We are sheltering home. Fans are familiar with Butch Karp, Marlene, the rest of the gang. Bad guys, good guys. The system continues. It's not too graphic. Dagenham can pack 4 subplots and numerous characters into 300 pages of solid story.

[Paul]

A good read if you like John Grisham. Butch Karp, a series character, teams with his wife, Marlene Ciampi to stop a crooked lawyer in his tracks. she is pregnant now with twins and she goes after bad guys. She involves her daughter when she goes to a shelter for street kids. How far will the suspense go?

[Freddy]

It was alright. Interesting characters (Butch and Selig). The plot development in the beginning of the book was great, especially with two story-lines being told at the same time. However as the story progressed, it became very predictable and the ending was quite anticlimactic.

[Jorn Barger]

This one isn't really THAT much better than the last few, but I graded them harshly, even though they were fun reads, so I'm making it up by praising this one even though it shares their problems (dark, messy, full of coincidences).

[Adrienne Kelliher]

I’m loving this NYC couple - 2 Lawyers confident in themselves and in their partners. Being a Private Investigator is not all glamorous… and logistics of 2 working parents to a 5 yrs old gets difficult. The end was a surprise for sure!

[Colleen]

I’ve picked up this series again because the character of Lucy has always stuck in my mind and I wanted to see how she’s doing. This series is dated but I can’t turn the pages fast enough. If you’re looking for a snapshot of NYC before it became more sanitized, this could be your series.

[Bill Barcas]

Great book

Book kept me occupied for a while. I didn'T realize it was book 8, I'll be looking for the other 7.
I liked the suspense and I hope some people get punished in future books. 😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

[Dave Lieberman]

I guess that overall, I enjoyed this book. At times, it felt a bit like there were two different stories here but eventually, they were tied together. Some of the "bad guys" seemed a bit two 1-dimensional for me.

[James Hein]

Another good one in the series

[Linda]

Enjoyed how this off the wall lawyer puts herself and family in tight situations.

[Sheila]

As always a good read

[Jan Norton]

This is probably my favorite in the series so far. I believe this is true to what really goes on with lawyers and the DA.

[Dermot O'Brien]

don't know , first half of the book didn't grab me at all, second half a lot better

[Nina Braden]

1996.

[Linda W. Wells Wells]

I live these characters! Don't want the series to ever end

[Angela]

Butch and Marlene are an entertaining pair. Their crime solving and legal dealings make for a truly enjoyable read

[Lynne Block]

Good read

[Jim Chalkley]

Great story

I really enjoyed this book and this series. Marlene and Butch are interesting characters. Looking forward to the next one in the series.

[Leonard Belstock]

Great boook.

From the first to last page enjoyed the adventures of the Karp family. Can't wait to see what the future has in-store for seven year old Lucy.