Pursuit: A Novel - Hardcover

Perry, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679453067 ISBN 13: 9780679453062

Publisher: Random House, 2001

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Thomas Perry

“[Thomas Perry is a] master of nail-biting suspense.”
-Los Angeles Times

“Perry never lets up on the suspense . . . masterful.”
-Booklist, about Death Benefits

“Explosive . . . the breathless, knowing prose is pitch-perfect.”
-Kirkus Reviews, about Dance for the Dead

“Thomas Perry just keeps getting better.”
-Tony Hillerman, about Sleeping Dogs

“A fascinating tale written by one of America’s finest storytellers.”
-San Francisco Examiner, about Shadow Woman

“Perry’s writing is as sharp as a sushi knife.”
-Los Angeles Times, about Blood Money

“As beautifully crafted as a good automatic weapon.”
-Martin Cruz Smith, about Sleeping Dogs

“Dazzles like a house of mirrors.”
-Martha Grimes, about Shadow Woman

“Thomas Perry is truly an original.”
-Jonathan Kellerman

“Terrific . . . dazzling ingenuity.”
-The New York Times Book Review, about The Face-Changers

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0679453067
• ISBN 13: 9780679453062
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384