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Summary: Perry is not "in pursuit"..He Leads with a Great Read
Review: This author has a depth to his writing which has not yet been reached. In this story he develops two protagonists with a possible third player, but to even try to describe the story beyond the basics may be difficult.Killing people for hire is not easy..or simple. It apparently takes training. There is a craven, smart, well trained killer for hire out there whose effort becomes understood and appreciated by criminalists in our midst. Please believe me, I am hard on authors, but this story deserves all the stars one can award it. The character development is complete for all players, the story line is compelling....if you want a great read...look no further. Mr. Perry has done it again!!
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Summary: Check out all Thomas Perry Novels
Review: This author is very original. A good thing. If you like Harlan Coben and Robert Crais, as you should, they are both great. Then check out Thomas Perry, any novel, especially Jane Whitefield novels-they are great.
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Summary: Check out all Thomas Perry Novels
Review: This author is very original. A good thing. If you like Harlan Coben and Robert Crais, as you should, they are both great. Then check out Thomas Perry, any novel, especially Jane Whitefield novels-they are great.
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Summary: This is the first ... book by Perry
Review: This is a lukewarm non-thriller, utterly unbelievable and unconvincing. Since I've lived in Santa Barbara over 15 years, any books with that background would not and hardly rung true. The distance between the beach to this guy's house is quite confusing, albeit walk elsewhere as far as to Goleta where UCSB located.
Ojai, well, that's another place used in this hollow novel that I'm quite familiar with, do you know how big that place is? Give me a break. I can only say one thing and the only good thing is the author's photo finally changed, to a dandy and smiling one, just wishing it's not a smile caused by how easy he cashed in with this ... book. Before this one, all of his books are not just good but great.
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Summary: Gripping Story By a Master of Suspense
Review: This is an original story that grabs the reader from start to finish in a dog-eat-dog battle to the death where the reader is taken on a ride that is full of bare knuckles and narrow escapes. Well scripted and totally original.
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Summary: PURSUIT BY PERRY
Review: This is the first book by Tom Perry that I didn't bother to finish. I was really disappointed as I have enjoyed all his previous work. No real plot and shallow characters made me think of a TV movie.
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Summary: Avoid This Chase: Pursuit by Thomas Perry
Review: This novel from Thomas Perry is an extremely disappointing and emotionally flat read where there is little difference between the hunter and the hunted. As the novel opens, a killer has managed to kill thirteen people inside a restaurant in order to confuse the police over who was his actual intended victim. But, ex-cop and now Criminology Professor Daniel Millikan is invited in to the crime scene by the local police and quickly figures out who the target was. Robert Cushner was the intended target and the killer killed everyone around not only to confuse the issue but also to prove that he could do it and get away with it.Professor Millikan soon flies home to Los Angles from Louisville after helping the Police all he can to find this special unfeeling professional killer. But, after the Police prove that they can't, the son's father, also going by the name of Robert Cushner contacts Millikan. The boy's father is wondering if Millikan can put him in touch with someone who might be able, not to get justice and bring the killer to trial, but to seek vengeance and make sure this never happens again. Millikan knows such a man and his name is Prescott. Prescott takes the job, because that is what he does for a living. Prescott begins an elaborate chess game with the killer and soon other people are dying as Prescott and the killer each try to prove his manhood. Neither wants to admit the possibility that the other is better or going to win the game of death. An elaborate chase across the country and back again, weaves through this 370-page novel leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. This is an extremely flat book where there is virtually no emotion coming through the work. These cardboard characters emote through various descriptions but at such distance from the reader that it never comes through. What does come through is the fact that there is little difference between the two and virtually no feelings over the steadily rising body count as Prescott baits the killer over and over again. This novel becomes an extremely boring piece of work and a real disappointment to this Thomas Perry fan. Fortunately, he has written some very good stuff in the past so check out some of his older titles and take a wide pass on this one.
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Summary: Good american fun and violence
Review: Thomas Perry impressed me with his extremely talented writing for quite some years ago, i don't rember when, with Metzger's Dog, which still runs like a movie behind my closed eyes. And that was his second novel. I allready WAS hooked, but it took me some time to get his wonderfull violent novel, The Butcher's Boy, to Denmark. Since then I've been hooked on Perry's word's. Hes writing so wonderfull "american", about the violent heroe's (are they good or are they bad?) .. well, I don't know, but I do love them with all my heart. And, of course, when Jane Whitefield, emerged I was absolutely flat out in love -- a deep and sincere love -- with the woman .. Well, if Perry wrote about the way the grass is growing, it would be worth to read the book -- so never will I miss one little book from him. He's indeed at the top of my list of american crimewriter's.
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Summary: A good read
Review: Thomas Perry is a remarkably good writer of suspense novels. You can pick up any of his books without worrying that you'll feel cheated. This book is not up to the level of the Jane Whitefield novels, but is, nonetheless, an entertaining way to spend a few hours. Perry's trademark trope of having his characters travel cross-country makes for a sense of progress, even when there isn't much happening. The games and traps he creates for his characters to evade and escape maintain a fairly consistent level of suspense--more than enough to keep you reading past your bedtime. Finally, his characters are rarely clear-cut good and bad guys, which makes them more interesting and more human. So what keeps this novel from being among Perry's best? Two things:
1. Although it is interesting to see things from the antagonist's point of view, he is not a terribly interesting creation--pretty much a montage of stereotypical killers from psycho/spy novels. The time he spends hiding out does not so much illuminate his character (as Prescott's down-time does) as simply provide more of the same. Although the structural parallelling of the two characters' actions is stylistically intriguing, Varney is too conventional for this trick to work well.
2. The multiple points of view prevent the reader forming a real bond with Prescott. It would be interesting to deal with the cognitive dissonance created by identification with an ambivalent character, but just when you start to like him, you get a dose of Varney or Millikan, thus interrupting the connection. These minor stylistic difficulties aside, this book is easily worth the money you'll spend on it and provides more entertainment than most authors pack into two novels.
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Summary: Quite simply: Wonderful!
Review: Thomas Perry is one of the rare writers who is always in control of his material. He writes with economy, with a fine ability to create a sense of place and to endow his characters with viable histories. He is also never tempted to write the heavy-handed, graphic sexual scenes that interrupt so many otherwise good novels. In Pursuit, which in theater parlance might be called a two-hander, he deals with the pithy issue of killing--from different sides of the fence. And he does it exceedingly well. James Varney is the ultimate narcissistic, amoral young killing machine. Roy Prescott is the dogged, older, seasoned and moral opposite. How Prescott pursues Varney, how Varney dodges and weaves, unraveling psychologically, then knitting himself back together, is the Pursuit of the title. But there's much more to this book than merely a chase. While we're offered only snippets of Prescott's history, what he is in the present tense is absolutely fascinating and the reader can't help but speculate on what factors might have contributed to making him such a meticulous, determined and farsighted planner. Varney is a compelling yet repugnant character, but so thoroughly fleshed that he is completely believable. Perry continues to grow as a writer; he's never fallen victim to any sort of personal formula in his work and, as a result, his books are always a trip to some place where the reader has never been before. Pursuit is a prose pas de deux, perfectly executed, perfectly resolved. Most highly recommended.
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