• Immoral Certainty

  • Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, Book 3
  • By: Robert K. Tanenbaum
  • Narrated by: Traber Burns
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (286 ratings)

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Immoral Certainty

By: Robert K. Tanenbaum
Narrated by: Traber Burns
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Publisher's summary

Butch Karp's career prosecuting New York's worst criminals takes a chilling turn when a series of ghastly child murders opens a window into the city’s hellish underworld. Karp and love-interest Marlene Ciampi pursue a psychopath known to his young victims as the Bogeyman, but what they find is more threatening than a lone predator. To stop the evil they unearth will take more than just courage in the courtroom; the two will need to follow a sinister trail into New York City's darkest corners, where the law is powerless to protect them.

©2013 Robert K. Tanenbaum (P)2013 AudioGO

What listeners say about Immoral Certainty

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of Tanenbaum's best

What did you like best about this story?

I thought this was a really good story. Lots of tension and fast paced. Although one of his earlier books which I had read many years ago, it was well worth the $ to hear it again.

Any additional comments?

I found this to be one of the more realistic of the Karp/Ciampi series as compared to some of the newer novels. I've always enjoyed Tanenbaum's books and style of writing. This book as with almost all contains everything I look for in a good thriller. I also like his twisted ending where one of the "good guys" ends up being a "bad guy".

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining Series

Although Immoral Certainty is one of Robert K. Tanenbaum's older Butch Karp novels it is well worth a listen by fans, or even listeners new to the series.
First published in 1991, this book goes back to the earlier days of the Karp-Ciampi association. Admittedly, this oddball couple may be an acquired taste. But their sizzling relationship is buttressed by a deep respect for each other's legal abilities. The author's own experience and understanding of the arcane world of the legal system enables him to lift improbable plot into the realm of logic and feasibility.
In fact, as Tanenbaum points out, the art of successfully nabbing criminals consists in a large part of the attending to boring minutiae by the foot soldiers of the prosecutorial staff. In the writer's own words, "The law radiates tedium the way a ballet does grace or an orchestra harmony." Fortunately for the listener, Tanenbaum sweeps us through the crucial humdrum of a criminal trial and highlights the nexus, so we all can delude ourselves, briefly, that we are as clever as a Butch Karp or a Marlene Ciampi. He connects the dots for us even as we are seduced by his seemingly far-fetched plots and sub-plots.
In this book, Marlene becomes acquainted with firearms and we are introduced to her bewitched fascination with their violent potential. "I don't know," she says after an initial visit to the firing range, "it had an effect on me I didn't expect." It turns out she's a natural. It is one of the ongoing talents of her character that becomes both useful to her and repelling to this listener.
Tanenbaum's characters are always interesting, although occasionally conveniently naïve. An example is the schoolteacher Anna who buys her sociopath boyfriend's explanation that the reason he uses a variety of credit cards with other people's names on them is because they are "corporate cards." True, the author says she has a reasonably sharp brain that is disengaged in the boyfriend's company "in favor of another set of organs entirely." But Anna is not unattractive and this descent into bimbo-ism stretches the imagination.
Yet overall, the writer pulls this intense story together. Tanenbaum is always engaging.

Traber Burns was very good with the delivery of the story

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ordinary

Unlike a lot of reviewers I enjoyed the first two books in this series enough to track down and read the ghost writer of the early Tanenbaum books (Michael Gruber). This time, not so much. Okay, the plot's so far over the top that my nose bled. But hey, that's true of the first two in this series that I'd liked. And yeah, once again Gruber has written a high farce, which like puns, appeal to a thin audience. Hey, I like them both.

The problem with shark jumping though is that a tooth can snag, tear, and release all of a plot's air. That happens here and unlike its predecessors, "Immoral Uncertainty" is just ordinary. But hey, ordinary's a lot better than mediocre, bad, or awful, right? I recommend that you start this series with "No Lesser Plea" and decide if you have an appetite for the bombastic Michael Gruber. It's an acquired taste and one that after "Immoral Uncertainty" I think I've lost.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Still Entertaining

I now know when I pick one of these Butch and Marlene parables up that it is going to be entertaining, slightly far fetched and with enough law to keep me interested in that at least. That's not a bad recommendation based on three books.
What else can I say. This won't inspire the sleuth in you that the Watergate investigation in "All the President's Men" might and it won't make you wonder about the constitutional niceties that say the "Pelican Brief" might, but it will keep you listening for hours on end. Mainly it is fun, even if the subject matter is grim (pedophilia).
Traber Burns has a nice way of engaging the funny side, dramatising the melodramatic and capturing that big lug, Karp, and his femme dominatrix, Ciampi, in just the right way.
Bring on Book 3.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Another looser

I could only take 9 chapters of this poorly narrated, poor character voice attempts and just plain bad attempts at humor. The narrator sounded stilted, unnatural and never again for this author.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

not for the weak at heart

The story is gruesome about child abuse. Lots of mature, street language that made the plot seem real.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting and enjoyable

I have really enjoyed these books. The storyline is believable and the characters are deep with plenty of nuances and flaws.
Great listening.
Thanks

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

I really enjoyed this story. All the Butch Karp books are interesting with great characters and excellent writing.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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one of his best

I love Robert Tanenbaum & his tales of Butch Carp. This is one of his best ever. Lots of twists & turns. A little too much of the depravity of mankind.

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Fantastic story

Once again Robert weaves a tale with seemingly random characters but in the end they are all related somehow.

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