Rating: 
Summary: good but some places drag
Review: I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who normally read Perry. For someone new I would recommend trying his Butcher's Boy or Jane Whitefield series first. This book seems to combine people with characteristic of Perry's more notable past characters -- a hitman ("The Butcher's Boy" - his first and in my opinion best book), someone smart and highly trained pursuing him, ("Death Benefits") and women a bit like Jane Whitefield (many books). It was a very good story and I enjoyed it and would have given it 5 stars but there were some places that seemed to drag, particularily with all the hitman's overthinking and exercising details. As usual Perry does a good job of fleshing out his main characters and a few sub-characters - I really enjoyed the pursuer character (Prescott) and would have liked more about Millikan (prescott's freind - a professor and excop). Hopefully, we will see another book with Prescott and Millikan.
Rating:
Summary: Truth in Advertising
Review: I've been a fan of Thomas Perry's since his first published novels, Metzger's Dogs and The Butcher's Boy (both of which I strongly recommend). He seemed to have disappeared for a bit, then returned with the Jane Whitefield series, which, although enjoyable, didn't have the same edge for me as the earlier works. But after a few of those, Perry turned back to stand-alone novels, and Pursuit is one of those. It's a decent entry into a real standby of crime fiction, the duel between two equally strong adversaries in which "the hunter becomes the hunted". Perry's weakness here lies in the very nature of the genre itself--the outcome must be predictable or the story will be unsatisfying or incomplete. The story moves forward with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. But his strength, here and in the Whitefield series, is the rich detail of the hunt, of pursuit and escape. The situations his characters find themselves in, their actions and reactions, are engrossing, and the characters themselves, especially the villian James Varney, are fascinating. And Perry's pacing is excellent, too. The novel contains a number of stories from the characters's pasts, and just when I was at the point of thinking, "The book's almost over and I still don't know much about what really motivates the hero," that issue was immediately addressed. "Pursuit" is exactly what it says it is, and well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Truth in Advertising
Review: I've been a fan of Thomas Perry's since his first published novels, Metzger's Dogs and The Butcher's Boy (both of which I strongly recommend). He seemed to have disappeared for a bit, then returned with the Jane Whitefield series, which, although enjoyable, didn't have the same edge for me as the earlier works. But after a few of those, Perry turned back to stand-alone novels, and Pursuit is one of those. It's a decent entry into a real standby of crime fiction, the duel between two equally strong adversaries in which "the hunter becomes the hunted". Perry's weakness here lies in the very nature of the genre itself--the outcome must be predictable or the story will be unsatisfying or incomplete. The story moves forward with the inevitability of a Greek tragedy. But his strength, here and in the Whitefield series, is the rich detail of the hunt, of pursuit and escape. The situations his characters find themselves in, their actions and reactions, are engrossing, and the characters themselves, especially the villian James Varney, are fascinating. And Perry's pacing is excellent, too. The novel contains a number of stories from the characters's pasts, and just when I was at the point of thinking, "The book's almost over and I still don't know much about what really motivates the hero," that issue was immediately addressed. "Pursuit" is exactly what it says it is, and well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: a guy's book
Review: If you like a fast paced, gritty, in your face story, this is the book for you.
I had never heard of Perry before picking this book up, now im going to go out and get another one of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like thrillers, A MUST READ
Review: Incredible suspense! This story of a brilliant sociopath and his pursuer was the best thriller I've read in years. Hard-edged and very exciting, I especially liked Perry's inventiveness - I could never outguess him. I can't wait for his next book!
Rating: 
Summary: Requires an Enormous Suspension of Disbelief
Review: Most books require the reader to suspend their disbelief of things that we know are not "real". But this book stretches things so far, that the characters are like comic book characters and it was hard for me to think I was reading anything but a comic book.The book is a replay of the movie and book "Shane", in which we have the good and moral gunslinger heading for the showdown with the immoral and evil gunslinger. The fact that the "good" gunslinger makes a living tracking down and killing professional hit men requires too much suspension for me. And the bad guy only kills 23 people in the space of a few months. But he's not a serial killer. Everyone has super senses, chiseled chins and steely grey eyes, and olympic-class athlete bodies. I kept waiting for a super-hero to show up and take care of the mess. Not a terrible read, but you can do a lot better.
Rating:
Summary: A little too much Spy v. Spy
Review: My first by Thomas Perry. Great pace and suspense, but the killing and Spy vs. Spy pursuit scenes take reality completely out of the picture (and a ridiculous typo on page 155 takes the proofreaders down a peg as well). Thirteen people are killed in a Louisville restaurant. Ex-cop now law professor Dan Milliken believes Bobby Cushner was the target. Bobby's wealthy father wants Milliken to find the killer. Reluctantly, he calls Roy Prescott, a mysterious manhunter who operates on the edge. They profile the killer right away - James Varney a twenty-something reject who first killed a cranky aunt at age 11. Varney's provoked to call his pursuer Prescott on p. 34 (really?), and the chase is on. The first two rounds go to Varney who flies to LA and kills two cops. The rest of the way Prescott, who's pushing 60 by the way but seems to have superhuman stamina, has Varney dead to rights a bunch of times, but Varney manages a series of impossible escapes. In the end there are 25 or so corpses strewn from coast to coast. Two "final" showdowns cap a sequence of great action scenes, but truthfully they'd fit more in a comic book than a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Chase this one down
Review: New characters fuel the lastest work by a very talented author. We visit Buffalo again, as an avenger and killer play a deadly chess game across the country. You'll overlook the coincidences, because Perry has you hooked from the opening scenes. We always learn interesting facts, this time about the trade in stolen goods. Have fun.
Rating:
Summary: 2 1/2 stars - What did I miss?
Review: Of all Thomas Perry's books, this was his least attractive. I'm a HUGE fan of Perry, so much so that every 2 years I reread all his books. Unfortunately "Death Benefits" was weaker than those preceding it and "Pursuit" is even weaker. I'm trying to think if I would have felt differently had I not read all of Perry's books beforehand. I don't think so. Since I get annoyed with reviewers who say "there's much better out there" and fail to make suggestions, I'll recommend the late Ross Thomas' books starting with "Briarpatch" and of course Perry's books prior to the last two. The entire book dragged. The killer might be called psychotic (I believe it means they can't tell the difference between right and wrong), but I believes he does, he just doesn't care what is right or wrong. The killer's history isn't interesting but we're exposed to a plethora of it. The minutea of his life doesn't enhance my knowledge of his character, especially since he's certainly not a sympathetic character. The title describes the story. However the biggest disappointment to me was the careless fashion in which the pursuer constantly and incompetently lets the killer get away. Why there wasn't a poison gas canister in the trap in Buffalo, why there wasn't a source of lethal electricity in the house in Minnesota, amazes me. Granted hindsight is 20/20, but we're talking about the pursuer having weeks to plan. Finally, there are a minimum of 4 unnecessary deaths of probably good people before the pursuer follows the course of action he should have in the first place. I'm sorry, this book started well with a nice set up that appeared to be a contest of cleverness, and dragged into a plodding story in which I just wanted to get it over with.
Rating:
Summary: 2 1/2 stars - What did I miss?
Review: Of all Thomas Perry's books, this was his least attractive. I'm a HUGE fan of Perry, so much so that every 2 years I reread all his books. Unfortunately "Death Benefits" was weaker than those preceding it and "Pursuit" is even weaker. I'm trying to think if I would have felt differently had I not read all of Perry's books beforehand. I don't think so. Since I get annoyed with reviewers who say "there's much better out there" and fail to make suggestions, I'll recommend the late Ross Thomas' books starting with "Briarpatch" and of course Perry's books prior to the last two. The entire book dragged. The killer might be called psychotic (I believe it means they can't tell the difference between right and wrong), but I believes he does, he just doesn't care what is right or wrong. The killer's history isn't interesting but we're exposed to a plethora of it. The minutea of his life doesn't enhance my knowledge of his character, especially since he's certainly not a sympathetic character. The title describes the story. However the biggest disappointment to me was the careless fashion in which the pursuer constantly and incompetently lets the killer get away. Why there wasn't a poison gas canister in the trap in Buffalo, why there wasn't a source of lethal electricity in the house in Minnesota, amazes me. Granted hindsight is 20/20, but we're talking about the pursuer having weeks to plan. Finally, there are a minimum of 4 unnecessary deaths of probably good people before the pursuer follows the course of action he should have in the first place. I'm sorry, this book started well with a nice set up that appeared to be a contest of cleverness, and dragged into a plodding story in which I just wanted to get it over with.
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