Rating: 
Summary: PURSUIT
Review: P rescott is a man who specialises in hunting down bad men.
U nderneath the police's radar, he doesn't always operate within the law.
R esulting from a horrific multiple murder in Louisville, he's called to action.
S ociopath and deadest monster, Jim Varney is Prescott's quarry.
U tter mayhem ensues as Varney has no qualms taking out whoever he wants.
I t all serves to lead to a showdown where it's uncertain which man will prevail.
T hrilling hunt pitting two men against each other who are survival specialists.
Rating:
Summary: Another gem by Thomas Perry
Review: People may not like this book because of the slow pace in certain sections. This is essential, because if you're trying to catch a mouse, you may have to lie in wait for long periods of time - or in the case of 'Pursuit', spend lots of time establishing you are someone you are not in order to catch your prey. This is typical Perry, paying attention to detailed real life situations of people who make livings either killing poeple of making them disappear. An excellent, if somewhat violent, read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Perry's best effort
Review: Perry has been a very dependable writer throughout his career but this one is not close to his best efforts. The plotting is, as usual, spectacular, but the characters never work for a few reasons. Varney, the hit man, is a killing machine. He kills everyone, so as a character, he's totally boring. The only conflicts are within his own mind and Perry never really establishes any reason for his makeup. Contrast him with the hit man in The Butcher Boy, Perry's first novel, and it makes for a slow read. Prescott, the tracker, could have been an attractive character a la Jane Whitefield, but while Prescott revels in the chase, he seems remarkedly unable to pull the trigger when he has trapped his quarry. While this might make for increased tension in the novel, the believablility factor goes down to zero.
Readers who want the best of Thomas Perry should go back to The Butcher's Boy or his classic, Metzger's Dog, and leave this one on the shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating cat-mouse-cat game.
Review: Perry never, ever disappoints me. This tale of a hitman and man hunting him becomes circular as each seeks to destroy the other. The book is strung end to end with psychological tension. How can Perry (anyone???) ever have imagined this series of traps and near-captures and hairsbreadth escapes all turning and tumbling as within the same scene the hunter becomes the hunted and then is suddenly the hunter again? Prescott is an amazing character, and though I'd like to think Perry will write more about him I'm still waiting for Chinese Gordon ("Metzger's Dog") to make a reappearance! A year? Do I really have to wait a year or more for another of Perry's books? C'mon, if the publishers can continue to crank out wordy tomes of unedited mishmash several times yearly from Stephen King, SURELY Perry could be published more often than annually! Of course it can take longer to write good quality material, so I guess I'll have to be patient and wait upon Mr. P.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Thriller
Review: Received this Thomas Perry thriller this week and read it in almost one sitting -- without skipping!!! Both main characters tread the fine line between being hero and villian; however, you clearly know which one is the "hero". The hero, Roy Prescott, is called in by a criminalist to pursue a serial/contract killer. Mr. Prescott's background is very murkey; is he a reformed bad guy or a back-slidden good guy? Hope we hear more about Mr. Prescott (if that's his real name) in future books. I don't normally rate any book five stars; this one deserves it.
Rating:
Summary: THE ULTIMATE "PURSUIT"
Review: Sometimes I'll finish a book and rush to read the reviews to see if others agreed with me. Many times, I'll find myself scratching my head, wondering if I read the same book as some of the reviewers. This was the case with this book, where Perry has intricately woven a plot where all the pieces in the puzzle are so carefully chiseled leaving no room for error on the part of the protagonist. The story starts off with a bang....well, actually thirteen of them as nine diners and four employees in a restaurant are all gunned down by a lunatic psychopath. While some might have called this the random work of a madman, Daniel Millikan, homicide detective turned criminology professor, knows better once he's viewed the crime scene. He realizes there was a target and the hit man killed the other twelve people in the restaurant just to make the police work even harder to figure it out. The wealthy father of one of the victims hires Roy Prescott to find his son's killer. Perry writes, "Revenge is not sweet, it's a luxury. It's a necessary restoration of balance in the universe." Since Prescott has a reputation for working outside of the law, usually leaving no prisoners, he's the perfect one to restore this balance. This book was better than any National Geographic episode where the hunter tracks down his prey. In this case, the hunter is Roy Prescott and the prey is hit man Jim Varney....someone who is almost as smart and cunning as Prescott but not quite. This will be a chase to beat all chases. Right from the beginning, Perry lets the reader know who the killer is thereby allowing us not only to get into Prescott's head but also into Varney's as he tells the story through both viewpoints. This is sometimes a dangerous technique but one Perry masterfully employs and one I very much enjoy. So many authors lead you through 300 pages, while you try to figure out who the killer is, only to be disappointed in the end. Since you already know who the killer is here, you'll read on just to find out if Prescott's pursuit is successful. I guarantee you it's one of the best cat and mouse chases you'll read with Prescott coming up with some ingenious plots to capture the very elusive Varney. Towards the end of this book, you'll be forcing yourself to avert your eyes from the next page, the next paragraph, the next sentence dragging out the inevitable climax just a little bit longer. You'll want to read ahead as quickly as possible because, by this time, you'll know that Varney cannot be allowed to live. Roy Prescott is just the type of guy you'd want to hire if you were seeking revenge. A dream book for me would be to see Roy Prescott teamed up with Perry's other recurring character, Jane Whitefield....also someone who enjoys working outside the law. Well, one can only dream.
Rating:
Summary: THE ULTIMATE "PURSUIT"
Review: Sometimes I'll finish a book and rush to read the reviews to see if others agreed with me. Many times, I'll find myself scratching my head, wondering if I read the same book as some of the reviewers. This was the case with this book, where Perry has intricately woven a plot where all the pieces in the puzzle are so carefully chiseled leaving no room for error on the part of the protagonist. The story starts off with a bang....well, actually thirteen of them as nine diners and four employees in a restaurant are all gunned down by a lunatic psychopath. While some might have called this the random work of a madman, Daniel Millikan, homicide detective turned criminology professor, knows better once he's viewed the crime scene. He realizes there was a target and the hit man killed the other twelve people in the restaurant just to make the police work even harder to figure it out. The wealthy father of one of the victims hires Roy Prescott to find his son's killer. Perry writes, "Revenge is not sweet, it's a luxury. It's a necessary restoration of balance in the universe." Since Prescott has a reputation for working outside of the law, usually leaving no prisoners, he's the perfect one to restore this balance. This book was better than any National Geographic episode where the hunter tracks down his prey. In this case, the hunter is Roy Prescott and the prey is hit man Jim Varney....someone who is almost as smart and cunning as Prescott but not quite. This will be a chase to beat all chases. Right from the beginning, Perry lets the reader know who the killer is thereby allowing us not only to get into Prescott's head but also into Varney's as he tells the story through both viewpoints. This is sometimes a dangerous technique but one Perry masterfully employs and one I very much enjoy. So many authors lead you through 300 pages, while you try to figure out who the killer is, only to be disappointed in the end. Since you already know who the killer is here, you'll read on just to find out if Prescott's pursuit is successful. I guarantee you it's one of the best cat and mouse chases you'll read with Prescott coming up with some ingenious plots to capture the very elusive Varney. Towards the end of this book, you'll be forcing yourself to avert your eyes from the next page, the next paragraph, the next sentence dragging out the inevitable climax just a little bit longer. You'll want to read ahead as quickly as possible because, by this time, you'll know that Varney cannot be allowed to live. Roy Prescott is just the type of guy you'd want to hire if you were seeking revenge. A dream book for me would be to see Roy Prescott teamed up with Perry's other recurring character, Jane Whitefield....also someone who enjoys working outside the law. Well, one can only dream.
Rating:
Summary: Two Worthy Adversaries
Review: The book opens in a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, the scene of a mass murder that has obviously been carried out by a particularly ruthless yet methodical killer. It's certain that this was no frenzied attack and it's also certain that the killer will eventually strike again. So unorthodox methods are required to stop him. Roy Prescott is such an unorthodox method. He specialises in tracking down particularly hard to find criminals and brings them to justice. This justice is not usually within the limits of the law. Once Prescott begins to hunt, the tempo of the story immediately lifts as you sense that the game is afoot. We are treated to a series of confrontation scenes where the action is intense, punctuated by periods of relative inactivity as both men recover and prepare for the next sortie. It turns into a thrilling game of attack and counterattack. Thomas Perry has virtually created a new sub-genre of his own, starting with the Jane Whitefield books and through Death Benefits and Pursuit. He has been specialising in books that depend on a person trying to disappear while the pursuers use all their considerable ingenuity to track them down. In this case, we witness a man-hunter at work as he alternately flushes and ambushes his prey. The tension is greatly increased because the hunted is not without significant survival skills and is very capable of switching from the role of the hunted into the hunter in the blink of an eye. I found this to be a very enjoyable thriller thanks to the evenness of the contest. Told alternately from the perspective of both men, we are allowed into the minds of both men.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly entertaining
Review: The story is intriguing and intelligent. Perry writes well, but sometimes too much - you'll hit a couple of slow spots, but should be able to skim through/past the extraneous detail easily. There are a couple of interesting traps, but they leave you wondering why they were half-baked, seemingly incomplete. You'll wonder why the bad guy leaves his pursuer wounded but not dead. And the ending is so abrupt that you'll be stunned. Nevertheless entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Perry's Talent Is On Display
Review: Thirteen bodies are found dead in a restaurant, and the father of one of the victims believes his son was the main target. He wants to hire Professor Millikan, a world-renown expert on homocide, to find the killer. Millikan refers him to Roy Prescott and from there the pursuit has begun. Readers learn quickly that the killer's name is Varney and he is a more than worthy adversary for Prescott. We follow Prescott as he attempts to first identify Varney and then learn how he acts in different situations. Prescott's plan is to set a trap anticipating how Varney will react and to be there to catch him. Thomas Perry has many skills as a writer of suspense. He has a patient way of laying the groundwork and maneuvering the characters into position for thrilling and unexpected encounters. He uses a technique of describing the action from one character's point of view and then retraces the event from the other character's perspective, resulting in a fuller, more entertaining and involved understanding of the plot. Perry is also a master of surprise and cleverness with the ability to sustain suspense throughout the story. Each character has distinct personality traits, values, motivations and styles. They develop relationships with each other, using dialogue so realistic it feels like you're eavesdropping. Of course, anyone who has read Thomas Perry is aware of his talent. Without revealing any more of the story, it is fair to say his talent is on display in PURSUIT. It is highly recommended for both old and new readers; you'll love it.
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