Hoax: A Novel

Readers of this long-running series starring New York Assistant D.A. Butch Karp and his lethal but lovable wife Marlene Ciampi will wonder why three-quarters of their 16th adventure is devoted to a rehash of their personal history, a dissection of their tangled psyches, and a tedious retelling of events that have little bearing on what passes for the plot of this one. Once again, it's a story of higher-up cover-ups of both political and priestly evil--in this case, a candidate for mayor who's as murderous and venal as ever was, and a serial pedophile killer who happens to be a Catholic cleric. Unlike the previous books in Tanenbaum's oeuvre, this one lacks the skill and verve of Michael Gruber (Tropic of Night), the uncredited writer largely responsible for making the series come alive on the page. Whoever took over needs to learn the difference between telling and showing before he or she tackles the next in Tanenbaum's series. --Jane Adams