Escape
Robert K. Tanenbaum
Vanguard, Apr 2008, $25.97
ISBN: 9781593154745
New York District Attorney Butch knows the world is watching because whenever a mother kills their young, the homicide becomes headline news. The mother in this case, NYU Political Science Professor Jessica Campbell has some notoriety for her protests starting in 2001 with chaining herself and her three year old daughter Hillary to the gates of Trinity Church. Her defense for killing her three preadolescent kids (Hillary, Chelsea and Benjamin) is the God order insanity plea that he directed her to "send her three children to Him". Karp has to prove she knew what she was doing in spite of her claim and the public’s general belief that the murdering of an offspring denotes insanity.
At the same Butch mounts the prosecution’s case, Islamic terrorist The Sheik has trained an American jihadist unit all willing to die for Allah to deliver a major terrorist attack on Manhattan that would cripple the global economy. Butch his still somewhat shook wife Marlene Ciampi, their daughter Lucy and a few other dedicated people try to prevent the planned tragedy.
ESCAPE is a fast-paced thriller that obviously moves on two subplots with the connection tenuous through the Professor’s admiration of Islamic extremists willing to suicide for their belief in Allah. The legal case re the prosecution challenging the defense’s insanity plea is well done, fun to follow and fits the role of Butch. On the other hand a band of superheroes led by Butch and Marlene against dedicated terrorists seems off kilter as one wonders where NYPD, Homeland Security, and the Defense Department are with so much at stake. Still this is an exciting tale if you let your imagination accept a DA and his team as professional field counterterrorists.
Harriet Klausner
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment