Bad Faith

Months after a brutal double homicide in uptown Manhattan shocks the city, sensational newspaper headlines herald the arrest and indictment of Felix Acevedo, a shy Bronx teenager who confessed to the horrific crimes. But downtown, in the district attorney’s office, Butch Karp is seething.

No sooner does he bask in the relief of successfully closing the case on murderous imam Sharif Jabbar than he is thrust into the center of a high-profile prosecution that threatens the integrity of his office. An ambitious young assistant district attorney, seeking career advancement, cuts corners to indict Acevedo, disregarding Karp’s fundamental rule: Never charge the accused unless the evidence leads inexorably to proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, damned by a coerced confession and a frenzied media bent on lynching him, Acevedo sits in jail while a vicious killer stalks the city.

Karp’s wife, Marlene Ciampi, one half of the “crime-fighting family” proclaimed by the media, hits the streets for clues that will save the unjustly accused defendant. What she discovers puts her on the trail of the true perpetrator—a drug-addicted psychopath with an ax to grind—and a disgruntled police detective who is willing to lie, withhold evidence, and kill to be labeled a hero. But it also puts her in the center of a dangerous race to be the last man standing and if she’s not careful, one of the other players will take the prize.

Awaiting trial in the Tombs, Manhattan’s infamous criminal detention complex, is Sharif Jabbar, the demagogic founder of a Harlem mosque. Charges against his terrorist attack on the city were dismissed once, and now that the Islam convert is being held on new allegations, New York District Attorney Roger “Butch” Karp is determined to bring him down. He faces formidable competition. Attorney Megan O’Dowd, a radical activist enthralled with revolutionary rhetoric, is going to the mat with the uncompromising conviction that Jabbar is being railroaded by the NYPD.

Outside the criminal courts, Karp’s wife, Marlene Ciampi, is pursuing her own investigation. Allegations against indigent Manhattan street vendor Dirty Warren in the murder of society beauty Michelle Oakley don’t sit right with Marlene. Unfortunately her sole ally is religious vigilante David Grale, the charismatic but deranged leader of the Mole People. What Grale knows about city corruption snakes as far and wide as the dank honeycomb of the sewers and tunnels his destitute army calls home.

Then Marlene discovers an unexpected— and ugly—parallel between the Oakley murder and the disappearance of another debutante: a treacherous underworld of upscale call girls and the price paid for indulging the wealthiest of men. As she explores these sordid truths, Butch Karp navigates his own tortured waters. What he soon discovers is that everyone, from the conspiratorial Jabbar and O’Dowd to the city’s most powerful, unimpeachable players—has a secret that could either set them free or cost them more than they ever feared.

To Butch Karp—a chief assistant district attorney with a formidable reputation as a brilliant and fearless prosecutor—the brutal assassination of Bollano family capo Ed Catalano appears to be a continuation of old-style wars between Mob families. But Willie Lie, leader of a Chinese gang called the White Dragons, insists that he and his cohorts were involved. The case is further complicated by an unscrupulous and ambitious U.S. attorney looking to use the Mob murder to advance his political career. And when Karp's twelve-year-old daughter witnesses a Chinatown gang slaying, she suddenly becomes a target herself.

But his child isn't the only loved one threatened. Karp's wife, Marlene—a private security consultant specializing in protecting stalked and abused women—is delving perilously into the decades-old death of a notorious Mob lawyer. And as their two investigations intertwine, Karp and Marlene must race to find answers before two of New York's most dangerous criminal organizations turn an unsuspecting city into a bloody battleground.

Meanwhile, a shadowy international power group called the Sons of Man kidnaps Karp's daughter, Lucy, as she attempts to thwart the latest terrorist threat against New York City. Karp races to decode a baffling series of riddles left behind by the group's mastermind, his longtime enemy, to uncover the terrorists' true target and save Lucy from certain death. The key may lie within the fevered mind of David Grale, a half-mad religious vigilante who has mysteriously retreated beneath the city.

Hunted by a beautiful but deadly Russian assassin, Karp and his eclectic band of accomplices must infiltrate the Sons of Man before the group's scheme for world dominion succeeds. But, little does Karp know: the clock is ticking down on New York City as an invisible force prepares to unleash Armageddon.

With more than twelve million copies of his books in print, Robert K. Tanenbaum is a true "master of the legal thriller" (Vincent Bugliosi) whose yanked-from-the-headlines adventures keep readers rapt until each breathtaking conclusion.