• Pursuit: A Novel

  • By: Thomas Perry
  • Narrated by: Tom Weiner
  • Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (771 ratings)

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Pursuit: A Novel  By  cover art

Pursuit: A Novel

By: Thomas Perry
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
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Publisher's summary

Thirteen bodies are found in a Louisville restaurant. When the police can find no suspect or motive, the family of one of the victims seeks the services of the enigmatic and solitary specialist Roy Prescott, known for his ability to find people who don't want to be found.

Working outside the law and willing to do what the police can't, Prescott hunts the killer, an elusive adversary who is as smart, as methodical, as deadly as he is. The only way to conduct this pursuit is to goad the killer into believing that he must kill�Roy Prescott. It's a contest fought from one end of the country to the other, and both men understand that, when it's over, only one of them will be left alive.

©2001 Thomas Perry (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Once Prescott takes the job, the novel shifts into a gear so high that putting the book aside is no longer an option....A bravura performance from one of the few crime writers who never lets you down." (Los Angeles Times)
"Brilliant....A bona fide nail-biter....Thomas Perry's cerebral thrillers unfold methodically, in extremely sharp focus. His attention to detail is so intense that it generates its own brand of quiet suspense." (The New York Times)
"Perry is the best suspense writer in the business....Pursuit is relentless, filled with twists and turns, that rare page-turner that keeps one reading late into the night to finish." (Boston Globe)

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What listeners say about Pursuit: A Novel

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mr. Perry continues to amaze.

This is a stand-alone novel. Hard to follow a first act like the Butcher's Boy. The villain here is unambiguously evil. His name is Varney. He will kill anyone for any amount. There are two good guys: Milliken is a cop, Prescott is an ex-cop who teaches law-enforcement. Prescott does things which are marginally legal but effective. Thirteen people are killed in a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. Prescott is called in. In the end the mouse finally cannot escape. The last four or five chapters will have you biting your fingernails, I guarantee it. Although you can predict the outcome, nonetheless the book is riveting. Prescott is trying to match minds with Varney, trying to match locations with him, and setting traps for the mouse. Prescott tries to anticipate where Varney will go and how he thinks. Varney goes to extremes to disguise himself. A separate trap is set for Varney, involving a woman named May.
Tom Weiner matches skills with Mr. Perry, which is saying something indeed. His pace is fast when it should be, and tantalizing when it needs to be. Some readers will recognize locations in Buffalo and in LA from other books.There is a bit less humor here than in prior works, but Mr. Perry has set the bar so high for himself that we hardly notice that. I loved this book. I am now in Mr. Perry's clutches. I will go anywhere he wants to take me. I hope that you can jump on the train, too.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book

This book is full of details that lead to an incredible ending. The author's ability to describe each character's logic, emotions, and skillset is profound.

I recommend listening to this.

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20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Feral Altruism = Crackling Story

To paraphrase Dante: conscience judges the sins of the the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted through different lenses. In 'Pursuit', Thomas Perry allows complex characters to explain themselves, then he smashes one against the other.

I think it was General MacArthur who said, "If you find yourself in a fair fight… You didn't plan your mission properly." 'Pursuit' is about grim planning men, hunting one another. It's a killerchiller of a story driven by clever plotting, cruel plotters, and dark motives.

Varney versus Prescott… A steel cage battle between men with brains wired backwards to each other. Perry creates a stream of exploding crisis. And since Perry rarely returns to a character in his next novel, the reader never knows who is disposable regardless of the depth of their characterization.

Perry's interested in the way our brains construct a sense of self. And then how impossible it is to cause them to change from the paths that result, in this case, in codependent killers. If you like tense mystery, clever puzzles, and truth suspended between perspectives… You'll like "Pursuit" as much as I did.

And Tom Weiner creates, then stages Perry's cast precisely correctly. He's nuance-perfect in unravelling a story that kept me intrigued in this conundrum through the last minute. Yep, five stars in this genre - And this is the SIXTH of the eight Perry novels I've read so far that earned FIVE STARS!!! I'm thinking this guy is a very favorite author of mine. And I just downloaded "Silence"… so I'm anxious to see of there's a seventh perfect Perry read coming up.

Keep posted:-)

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn't get into this one

It starts out great. You expect to see two cunning, ruthless masterminds pitched against each other. Except it goes nowhere. One step forward (the current plot line from the murderer's point of view), two steps back (a story from his past that is supposedly going to help us understand him). One step forward (the current plot line from the hunter's perspective), two steps back (a story from his past that is supposedly going to help us understand him). One step forward again, two steps back again; one step forward again, two steps back again...It would have been fine if the current plot line got farther faster...or if the backflashes actually felt meaningful, but after the first one all of them start sounding the same...and the whole thing becomes extremely tedious. I tried, but could not finish this one.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not Good!

I was very dissapointed by this book. The main character was completly unlikeable and unbelievable. The methods by which the hero pursues the villain are so stupid it is laughable. There is also no sort of character development throughout the entire book. Skip this one and go out in pursuit of a real book!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow! A new Perry fan is born

This only my second Perry book. I liked - not loved - the first one but Having listened to Pursuit, Im now an official fan and will be getting all his books. This book is equal parts character development and plot and both are done extremely well. I'm a huge Jack Reacher fan (have them all, both audio and paper) and this book comes darn close. I hope the rest of his books measure up AND hope he continues the story line.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A fictional Chess match with collateral damage

I didn't know how Perry was going to sustain my interest for such a relatively long time, but he did. It's always fun to watch the hunter pursue the victim and then have the tables turn. In this case, the 'good' guy is only relative to an extremely depraved bad guy, (which can be traced to bad mothering) so our ending could never be in doubt. Still, a wily Chess game is always more enjoyable then Checkers. (Any good game metaphor works, excepted perhaps Bridge.)

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Good author, exciting tale

I've enjoyed Thomas Perry's books, starting with the Butcher's Boy, and continuing through the different series. Perry often introduces a non-typical hero, sometimes unlikeable and occasionally even the "bad guy". Perry's ability to make these characters sympathetic enough for us to want to find out what happens to them is remarkable, particularly as he does it without watering down their personalities. Each one is an individual.

Another thing Perry does very well is craft an exciting story. He does it again here.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best

The plot better than some Perry novels. The pace, as usual, never stalls. One of his best.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Almost as good as Jack Reacher Stuff

Great story, Perry leads the reader down many paths, all of which you want to follow down. The ending is like nothing else I have ever read. The hero gets paid a lot for his services and clearly needs all the money to trap this vilian. It is great praise when I compare anything to Lee Child's Jack Reacher stuff.

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2 people found this helpful