I am a long time fan of Butch and Marlene These characters have the same names but they are not the same characters. In fact this book has such flat characters that it appears characterless. It is clear that when Michael Gruber left, so did the characters and writing we all loved. Whatever Mr. Tanenbaum did that caused Michael Gruber to move on, he should apologize and get him back, or end the series. I feel a little like the victim of a fraud by having had this book passed off as another in the Karp/Chiampi series.

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I've read the first 18 of Tannenbaum's offerings. As I mentioned in my review of book 17 ("Fury"), his plots are getting more and more fantastic, and his characters, both villans and heros, more and more like comic book caricatures. His earlier books all got at least 4 stars from me, and sometimes 5 - this one gets 3, and that's a stretch. I have several more stacked up to read, but doubt that I'll add to my collection of his work unless he goes back to writing stories about actual crime fighting instead of all this global conspiracy terrorist crap. I had to push myself to finish this book.

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A political murder mystery that includes the fall of Communism, the war in Chechnya and Afghanistan, and terroism. A book full of conspiracies that are built on actual historical events.

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