Death Benefits: A Novel [Hardcover]

Thomas Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2001

When gruff and intimidating security consultant Max Stillman appears without warning in the San Francisco office of McClaren Life and Casualty and begins asking questions and scrutinizing files, the employees can't help wondering just which of them he's been hired to investigate. The first to find out is young data analyst John Walker when Stillman's mysterious investigation leads out of town, he announces he's taking Walker with him.

Walker has been picked because a colleague with whom he once had a love affair has disappeared after paying a very large death benefit to an impostor. Since Walker knew her intimately, Stillman believes he's likely to be useful in finding and convicting her. But because he knows her so well, Walker is convinced that she is innocent, and that he must join the pursuit so that he can defend her. These conflicting purposes unite Walker and Stillman in an urgent search that propels them across the country and into unexpected dangers. The trail ends in a deceptively peaceful corner of the New Hampshire countryside, where they find themselves trapped by a deadly conspiracy that's much bigger, older, and more evil than they could ever have imagined.

Martin Cruz Smith declared a previous Perry novel as beautifully crafted as a good automatic weapon. In Death Benefits, Perry gives us another stunning suspense story with writing that is, as the Los Angeles Times said, as sharp as a sushi knife.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fans of Thomas Perry's popular series featuring Jane Whitefield, the Seneca Indian woman who helps people disappear (The Face-Changers, Shadow Woman, et al.) may be disappointed when they discover that Death Benefits doesn't feature the heroine who has won this writer so many new readers. But the disappointment won't last longer than the first page of this intriguing and extremely well-written new thriller, whose hero, John Walker, a data analyst for a large insurance company, deserves a series of his own.

When a security man named Max Stillman plucks Walker out of the office pool and dragoons him into investigating a fraud against the McClaren Life and Casualty, Walker's previously safe life takes a new and potentially dangerous turn. As the pair begin searching for the missing employee, who signed off on the huge (and phony) payoff of a death claim, and follow her to a grave in a Midwestern wheat field, Walker discovers talents he never knew he had and a thirst for vengeance. With the mysterious Stillman, he tracks the conspirators to a New Hampshire village and an explosive and shocking conclusion to a fraud that's much older than either of the men might have guessed. Like Don Winslow, whose California Fire and Life also focused on insurance fraud, Perry manages to make even the dusty back corners of the corporate world a likely setting for mystery and mayhem. This is a sharp, suspenseful, successful debut for a pair of unlikely compatriots, marked by Perry's edgy, noirish style, lively dialogue, and superb pacing. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Perry (Blood Money; The Face Changers) serves up a clever entertainment (in the Graham Greene sense of the word) set in the high-stakes insurance world. After a deliberately ambiguous prologue (just why is Ellen Snyder going to an L.A. airport hotel before dawn?), we learn that Ellen, working out of the Pasadena office of a prestigious San Francisco insurance company called McClaren's, recently authorized a 12$- million death benefit payment to a man who turned out to be an imposter. Now both the imposter and Ellen have navished, and McClaren's has called in mysterious operative Max Stillman to investigate the apparent conspiracy to defraud. Stillman oh-so-deftly draws young John Walker, an analyst in the main San Francisco office, into the investigation. Walker cooperates with Stillman because he doesn't believe Ellens's guilty; he's still a little bit in love with her from their training class days, although Ellen's career plans left no room for more than a casual interoffice romance. Casual is the operative word here: a casual remark from Walker to an enigmatic computer hacker named Serena leads to a seriously steamy interlude. And casual is the best way to describe Perry's seemingly effortless method of developing character and building suspense. His style is so assured as to be invisible, seamlessly supplying plot and character information as the chase leads from California to Chicago, Miami and finally a small town in New Hampshire. Though the finale echoes the premise of a particular Dachiell Hammett story, everything else feels as fresh as dawn. (Jan. 16) Forecast: Perry won an Edgar for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was New York Times Notable Book of the Year. This is his finest novel yet and, if sold with enthusiasm, could chart significant numbers. The bold evocative, b&w jacket will help, as will the four-city author tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (January 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679453059
• ISBN-13: 978-0679453055
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

THOMAS PERRY is the author of 19 novels including the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, Blood Money and Runner), Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel.
He won the Edgar for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was a New York Times Notable Book. The Independent Mystery Bookseller's Association included Vanishing Act in its "100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century," and Nightlife was a New York Times bestseller. Metzger's Dog was voted one of NPR's 100 Killer Thrillers--Best Thrillers Ever.
Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. He has worked as a park maintenance man, factory laborer, commercial fisherman, university administrator and teacher, and a writer and producer of prime time network television shows. He lives in Southern California.  His website: www.thomasperryauthor.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enormously entertaining, February 21, 2001

By 

Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Benefits: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of Thomas Perry's work since his first book, Butcher's Boy. Perry is one of the rare writers who never inflicts himself on his material, but rather allows the characters to evolve and speak for themselves. His writing is spare, never cluttered, and his characters are always fully realized and highly distinctive. Death Benefits is a fine example of a writer at peak form. Aside from a truly intriguing plot line that extrapolates on the possibilities of misusing life insurance that have not (at least to my knowledge) previously been explored, we have a central character who, at the age of twenty-four, grows up within the pages of this book--ably and entertainingly pulled along by the fascinating Stillman and the clever Serena. What I particularly liked about the character of Stillman, aside from his ingenuity, is his humor and wisdom. There's a lot of truth about life, and about the process of personal growth in these pages. Much as I enjoyed it, though, I found the "bad guys" to be rather an implausible creation. That said, this is a thoughtful and entertaining book, and the last hundred pages of Death Benefits make for a breathless ride. Highly recommended.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looks like Mr. Perry has the start of another great series, January 16, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Benefits: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Pasadena, California, insurance agent Ellen Snyder approves the payment of the twelve million-dollar death benefit to an impostor. Not long afterward, Ellen vanishes somewhere between the nearby airport and apparently LA. The impostor has also disappeared. A stunned McClaren Life and Casualty hires private investigator Max Stillman to investigate the fraud.

After making inquiries in both the Pasadena and the San Fransicso based home office, Max successfully recruits John Walker, an analyst working for his client, to assist him on the case. Max believes John can help him because he amorously knew Ellen when they were trainees. John agrees to help because he believes the woman he still loves is innocent of any wrongdoing. With opposite motives, John and Max begin a trek around the country in an effort to locate the money and the two culprits behind the felony.

If anyone had doubts that no one does suspense thrillers better than Thomas Perry does, just read the exciting, action-packed and character driven DEATH BENEFITS. Only a great writer with the talent of Mr. Thomas can turn insurance companies and related fraud seem glamorous and exhilarating, but that is what the author accomplishes in this fabulous tale. Max and John make a powerful team even as their individual traits make them seem like real people. The who-done-it is cleverly designed from the start, when Ellen flees into the night, and never eases up as the audience has another mystery from one of the genre greats.

Harriet Klausner

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to his standards, April 15, 2001

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death Benefits: A Novel (Hardcover)

I agree with those that liked the characters of John Walker and Max Stillman as well as the premise of this novel. As the characters worked their way through the puzzle of how somebody was defrauding McLaren Life and Casualty out of millions of dollars the intrigue gets more complex, interesting and very dangerous. However, the answer to the puzzle struck me as so implausable that after following what had become a real head scratching story, I could not help but wonder why the author had chosen to go there. I have enjoyed all of the Jane Whitefield books and am still looking for a copy of The Butcher's Boy, but this book is simply not up to what I have come to expect from this author. It deserves a better ending.