Robert K. Tanenbaum is an attorney, author of crime novels, and the creator of a series of novels featuring Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi, lawyers for the New York District Attorney's office.

Tanenbaum was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 and received his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law. Tanenbaum is a legal expert and media commentator. He conducts continuing legal education seminars for practicing lawyers in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

.

He has been homicide bureau chief for the New York District Attorney's Office; he has reportedly never lost a felony case. From 1976 to 1978 he served as a Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations to investigate the John F. Kennedy assassination

John F. Kennedy assassination

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

 and the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination

Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination

Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent American leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39...

. He is also a former two-term Mayor of Beverly Hills, having served on the Beverly Hills City Council from 1986 to 1994. During 1988 he appeared in the documentary, The Men Who Killed Kennedy

The Men Who Killed Kennedy

The Men Who Killed Kennedy is a 9-part video documentary series by Nigel Turner about the John F. Kennedy assassination. The series, which related various conspiracy theories, was extensively challenged on factual grounds....

. Most recently, he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.

In all but Tanenbaum's last seven novels, he credits Michael Gruber

Michael Gruber (author)

Michael Gruber is an author living in Seattle, Washington. He attended Columbia University and received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Miami...

, his cousin, as a collaborator, and Gruber is generally considered as being Tanenbaum's "ghost writer." Wendy Walker and Espey Jackson are acknowledged in Malice.

Works in which Michael Gruber is credited

• 1987 No Lesser Plea
• 1989 Depraved Indifference
• 1991 Immoral Certainty - Karp's girlfriend is kidnapped & recovered.
• 1992 Reversible Error
  Reversible error
  In law, a reversible error is an error by the trier of law or the trier of fact or malfeasance by one of the trying attorneys which results in an unfair trial...
  
  
• 1993 Material Witness
  Material witness
  A material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of 1984 most recently amended the text of the statute, and it is now codified at...
  
  - Murder of a professional basketball player, causes Karp to play professional basketball. Birth of Lucy Karp.
• 1994 Corruption of Blood
• 1994 Justice Denied
  Justice Denied
  Justice Denied is the only regularly published print magazine in the world solely devoted to issues related to wrongful convictions. The magazine prints stories about wrongful convictions, miscarriages of justice, and criminal justice issues related to prosecution and conviction of innocent people...
  
  
• 1996 Falsely Accused
• 1997 Irresistible Impulse
• 1998 Reckless Endangerment - Roland is shot. An Arab plot to bomb the Haddassah building.
• 1999 Act of Revenge
• 2000 True Justice
  True Justice
  True Justice is a 13 episode television series about undercover cops starring Steven Seagal. Seagal stars as Elijah Kane, and heads a special task force....
  
  
• 2001 Enemy Within - A golden boy cop kills a black man and the city seethes on the edge of exploding.
• 2002 Absolute Rage - A neighbor is killed on Long Island taking the Karp's to a union battle in West Virginia.
• 2003 Resolved - Vicious killer Felix Tighe escapes from prison with the help of Arab terrorists.

Other novels

• 2004 Hoax - Karp battles Andrew Kane, the powerful would-be Mayor of New York. Jojola and Ned introduced.
• 2005 Fury - An Al Qaeda plot to bomb Times Square
  Times Square
  Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
  
  on New Year's Eve. Introduces Karp's distant relatives in the Brighton Beach-based Russian mob.
• 2006 Counterplay - Andrew Kane escapes from prison and puts in motion a plan to assassinate the pope and the Karp family.
• 2007 Malice - An international conspiracy to assassinate a United States Senator, and to use a University supercomputer for criminal purposes is foiled by Karp and friends. Introduces Sons of Man and the Sons of Liberty Breakfast Club.
• 2008 Escape - The Sons of Man collaborate with a new terrorist commander, "The Sheik".
• 2009 Capture - The Sons of Man continue to try to control the world working with "The Sheik". Ned proposes marriage to Lucy.
• 2010 Betrayed - Marlene defends Dirty Warren. Butch tries Sharif Jabbar from Escape.
• 2011 Outrage - A man is falsely accused of several brutal murders.

Non-fiction

• The Piano Teacher: the true story of a psychotic killer
• Badge of the Assassin