Counterplay

Book excerpt: 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 schoolchildren 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. With an intensive manhunt ongoing for the fugitive Kane, Karp and long-time colleague Ray Guma open a cold case and pursue murder charges against wealthy Manhattan power broker/banker Emil Stavros, whose socialite wife disappeared nearly fifteen years earlier. Meanwhile, Karp's wife, Marlene Ciampi, has let her fascination with her husband's lesser-known family comprised of Russian gangsters pull her into a dangerous world of Islamic terrorists, Chechen rebels, and Russian agents engaged in nefarious events straight out of today's real-world headlines. 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.