Resolved

Manhattan ADA Butch Karp returns in this fifteenth outing in Robert Tanenbaum’s popular series–this time he’s the hunted as well as the hunter, and he’s being stalked by a man he sent to prison over a decade ago–a psychopath who supposedly died in prison. But Felix Tighe is very much alive, and now he’s the paid assassin of a group of Islamic fundamentalists whose terrorist goals will make 9/11 look like a training exercise. Tighe has his own violent score to settle with Karp, his estranged wife Marlene, and their three children–particularly Lucy, who’s no stranger to demons like Felix. Tanenbaum’s plotting is confident and his pacing assured–he’s a master of the legal thriller, as good if not better than Grisham and his peers, and he works from an insider’s knowledge of Manhattan’s criminal justice milieu. But what makes this series remarkable is the author’s ability to keep his characters fresh and interesting by putting them in circumstances that reveal more of their emotional, spiritual and marital dimensions with every new adventure. Resolved is a terrific read. –Jane Adams