Pursuit [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Thomas Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2002

Thirteen bodies are discovered inside a small Louisville restaurant just after closing time. The ferocity and apparent randomness of the crime prompt the police to call in criminology professor Daniel Millikan-they want a profile of the murderer. Millikan determines that the crime was committed not by a psychopath but by a professional killer of consummate skill and total lack of feeling: “I think that the one who did it is one of the special cases. He’s somebody we can’t afford to have walking down a street where our families walk.” When Millikan learns that the investigation has come to a complete standstill, he commits himself to an unorthodox decision. The only hope of stopping this killer and ending the bloodshed is to employ Roy Prescott, an expert in the narrow specialty of hunting down murderers through methods the police can’t-and wouldn’t-use.

And so begins a stunning novel by Thomas Perry, “one of the most thoroughly satisfying writers around” (Lawrence Block), a death match fought from one end of the country to the other by two enemies who both understand that only one of them will be alive at the end.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thomas Perry's Pursuit is a dark tale of two killers, one a cold- blooded hit man and the other, the hero, something much murkier. When 13 people are mowed down in a restaurant, a police consultant realizes that it's the work of a professional who's tried to make a contract hit look like a random mass killing. Enter Roy Prescott, an expert in hunting down criminals using methods generally frowned on by law enforcement. Prescott uses the national media and the unknown killer's ego to draw his attention, then plays a game of cat-and- mouse with him in which the stakes quickly grow higher. Perry, best-known for his fine Jane Whitefield series, has a precise feel for characters who work for vengeance and justice outside the law, and Prescott easily gains the reader's sympathy while maintaining his bad-guy, good-guy mystique.

Pursuit may draw some comparisons with Lawrence Block's wry Hit Man and Hit List, but while Block is always excellent, it's Perry's work that'll have you waking up in a cold sweat. --Barrie Trinkle --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The massacre of 13 people in a Louisville restaurant opens Perry's latest psychological thriller (after Death Benefits). Criminologist Daniel Millikan determines that this was no random occurrence, but an assassination carried out by a ruthless, methodical predator but who was the target? The killer, James Varney, is a cold-blooded psychopath who claimed his first victim his aunt at the age of 11; a loner, he later turned to robbery and murder for hire. Against his better judgment, Millikan supplies the father of one of the victims with the name of someone who might be able to help: shady operator Roy Prescott. Prescott's past is dark enough to enable him to get inside the mind of the killer and, with Millikan's help, he sets in motion an elaborate cat-and-mouse game that moves from city to city, with each man trying to anticipate the other's every move as the body count continues to rise. The traps Prescott devises to catch his prey and the ways in which Varney eludes them are fascinating, albeit a bit far-fetched, and Perry supplies just enough background to give the two leads depth with a minimum of psychobabble. The female characters, while essential to the plot, are thinly drawn by comparison, and the book loses momentum about halfway through, when Varney goes into hiding and Prescott tries to determine who hired him to commit the initial murders but Perry definitely comes through in the end, expertly tying the threads together. Agent, Lescher and Lescher. 6-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 715 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786242094
• ISBN-13: 978-0786242092
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,500,380 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

38 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 2 1/2 stars - What did I miss?, January 2, 2002

By 

JD Schaefer (San Rafael, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pursuit: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, February 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pursuit (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good but some places drag, December 26, 2001

By 

Joe G. Steinbrunner "joegstein" (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pursuit: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.