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Robert Tanenbaum could not hold my interest in this novel
Book Review
By Derryll White
Tanenbaum, Robert K. (2012). Bad Faith.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” – Second Corinthians 4:4
Robert Tanenbaum wrote more than 20 novels before this one. His lead character, New York District Attorney Butch Karp, is not new to many readers of legal thrillers.
In “Bad Faith” he pits religion against medical ethics, keeping the story topical as well as thrilling. Being a trial lawyer himself, as well as a respected legal professor, Tanenbaum writes with both authority and familiarity for the profession Butch Karp represents.
Reverend C.G. Westlund is God’s emissary at the End of Days Reformation Church of Jesus Christ Resurrected in New York City. His parishioners believe that Western medicine is the false hope of Satan. His con puts religion against the intervention of doctors, sacrificing children for profit and precipitating a court challenge.
There are also competing streams of terrorism, corruption and the collapse of American integrity, both systemic and personal. In the end the sub-texts became unbelievable to me. They were too fanciful, too distracting. The legal issue was interesting – does the First Amendment to the American Constitution give blanket coverage to religious practitioners? The rest simply distracted from that story. In the end Robert Tanenbaum could not hold my interest in this novel.
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Excerpts from the novel:
THE GOAL – After all, terrorism wasn’t so much about how many deaths resulted – though large numbers were good for publicity; it was the way in which the infidels died, suddenly and in a place they considered safe.
POPULAR MEDIA – “The American media ought to pay us for giving them such great videos for their newscasts,” one of the other jihadists had joked at their last meeting.
If they knew about this they probably would have, Ghilzai thought. Nothing is sacred to the media in this country, not even images of slaughter. They are our best propaganda tool, and it doesn’t cost us anything more than our lives.
MOLE PEOPLE – “For one thing, the article cast a large umbrella over many people and called them all the Mole People – murderers, rapists, the depraved and criminally insane lumped in with those whose only crime is poverty. Oh, they may be tormented by addictions to alcohol and drugs, may be even struggling with mental illness, but by and large they are good people down on their luck. However, they were all painted with the same broad brush by the article, which further isolated them from society – they’re now avoided on the streets by ‘normal’ people rather than extended the hand of Christian charity.”
CHANGE – “Whatever our makeup ten years ago, currently our ranks swell with the recently impoverished, the great disappearing middle class, who find themselves suddenly homeless, penniless, and now among the ‘have-nots.’ These are the new immigrants to my kingdom beneath the streets, and this country had better wake up or there will be no middle class, only class warfare.”
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
