Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Old Man  By  cover art

The Old Man

By: Thomas Perry
Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.79

Buy for $25.79

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont with two big mutts and a grown daughter he keeps in touch with by phone. But most 60-year-old widowers don't have multiple driver's licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run.

Thirty-five years ago, as a young hotshot in army intelligence, Chase was sent to Libya to covertly assist a rebel army. When the plan turned sour, Chase reacted according to his own ideas of right and wrong, triggering consequences he could never have anticipated. And someone still wants him dead because of them. Just as he had begun to think himself finally safe, Chase must reawaken his survival instincts to contend with the history he has spent his adult life trying to escape. Armed mercenaries, spectacularly crashed cars, a precarious love interest, and an unforgettable chase scene through the snow - this is lethal plotting from one of the best in crime fiction.

©2017 Thomas Perry (P)2017 Tantor

What listeners say about The Old Man

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,965
  • 4 Stars
    2,436
  • 3 Stars
    919
  • 2 Stars
    216
  • 1 Stars
    114
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,961
  • 4 Stars
    1,930
  • 3 Stars
    729
  • 2 Stars
    186
  • 1 Stars
    127
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,593
  • 4 Stars
    2,098
  • 3 Stars
    880
  • 2 Stars
    222
  • 1 Stars
    114

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The 'old man' is not old!

The protagonist of The Old Man is 60 years old which is 10 years younger than the author and 14 years younger than me. Thomas Perry and I may be old men, but the protagonist is not! Now that that is out of the way, I can continue with my short review.

The Old Man is about a man who uses several names none of which are his own. He has been out of military intelligence for 30 years and has been on the run since. During almost all of that time he was safely at his home in New England where he and his wife raised a family (his wife died at age 45 approx. 15 years ago). Suddenly he was forced to run as he was found and trained men sent to kill him. His hunters consist of a rich Libyan and members of US military intelligence, an unlikely pairing.

This is a well researched and written suspense thriller that, in my opinion, is as good as anything that Thomas Perry has written including The Butcher's Boy trilogy. Perry is one of the best authors of his generation. He has released only 24 novels in 35 years. All of his work is of excellent quality. His novels are all must reads for those who like the suspense mystery/thriller genre. Peter Berkrot does an outstanding job of narration.

I strongly recommend all of Thomas Perry's novels including The Old Man.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

162 people found this helpful

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

Excellent Thriller

Any additional comments?

Book held my interest... could not stop listening, still awake til 4:00 am... Love Thomas Perry books!If you've read all of Thomas Perry's books I recommend the following audio books:

Killing Floor
Sharpe's Tiger
The Lion's Game
Shibumi
Satori
A clean Kill in Tokyo
The Hunter (Victor the Assassin #1)
Beat the Reaper
American Assassin
The Gray Man
Fear Nothing Dean Koontz
Rules of Prey
Absolute Power
The Whole Truth

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

140 people found this helpful

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

Mr. Perry pulls another rabbit out of his hat!

If you could sum up The Old Man in three words, what would they be?

I hate this question. (Four words again.) Mr. Perry has no doubt spent over a year writing this amazing novel, and it is preposterous to even think that three words could do it justice. Enough of this stupid question! As above, Thomas Perry has once again demonstrated why he is the unquestioned master of this genre. In fact, as with the Butcher's Boy, Mr. Perry has created a genre of his own. We identify with a man who has a quite checkered past, to put it mildly. We come to care a great deal about him, even though he may have committed murder in the long-distance past. By the time the book ends, we understand that he is a true hero, a defender of his country, nothing like a criminal. But a very complicated man, to say the least.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes. I can't describe the plot at any length, because it is so rich, so detailed, with so many left turns, chases, changes of identity and changes of location. The "old man" has a history that is so rich, so full of fascinating detail, and the book makes the present equally entertaining. The plot is ingenious. It would take a hundred lesser writers in the aggregate to create a novel so variegated and so full of clever plot developments. Truly, if you haven't read Mr. Perry's work, you are in for a special treat. This kind of imagination and writing skill shows up very rarely, and I appreciate it in a way that I applaud almost no other authors. You just have to read him to get the picture.

Which character – as performed by Peter Berkrot – was your favorite?

The old man is the obvious choice. Mr. Berkrot, though, is the perfect narrator for every character in the book. The textures in his voice are just wonderful to hear. His ability to change the pace of narration with the story, his ability to voice many characters, of both genders, young and old, of any race or nationality: I will search for Mr. Berkrot to hear his other work. I believe he reads Tim Hallinan's books, which is appropriate: Tim is almost at the level of Mr. Perry, and I know that he admires every book that Mr. Perry writes. I would not want to listen to any less talented narrator read a work of either of these two men.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not extreme. I did feel amazed and grateful at the end, which I will not spoil for you. The old man has jumped through so many hoops, with such degrees of difficulty, that I did fear that he would eventually drop dead from the exertion. But, maybe there will be a sequel! (I guess I have divulged one part of the end of the book, but in a marvelous cause.) The man may be old, but I hope he lives to be a hundred.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

117 people found this helpful

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

60 Is the New Old

I must be really out of step with the majority of the reviewers of this book. I bought it because it sounded like a good mystery, and it received good reviews.

The opening was very good, and I was pleased that I had found a new author to enjoy. By the end of the book, the narration was set to 1.25 and I was fast forwarding minutes at a time. The story was just off. A government spy tries to deliver money to an Afghan who will pass it along to the right people, but then realizes it's not going to make it to the intended fighters. The Afghan is living high on money that should help people fight their war. So, what does our spy do? He manages to take the money back. He was very clever, and there should have been no reason the Afghan knew that the money was retrieved, but 35 years later, there are people trying to kill our spy.

So he's on the run. One of the things I initially loved were the dogs. They're gone in a few chapters, but he's picked up a love interest. They're on the run.

Throughout the book the bad guys refer to him as "the old man." He's 60. Now, 75 might make the title applicable, but not 60.

And the narration was just awful. It seemed like there were hints of the south, so I thought maybe the narrator was British, and trying to disguise his accent. Nope. Plain old American. He can't do female voices. He emphasizes the wrong word in a sentence. He "acts" far too much in the narration.

So, I'm returning this book, and to all those who love it, I can only say "de gustibus non est disputandum."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

102 people found this helpful

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

Really Good Fugitive Mystery

Hattip to my friend Ted from Lancaster, Pa, whose review nailed this one as the gem it is.

Imagine a former special forces soldier, turned Intelligence Officer being forced into exile in one of his first missions. Some 35 years later he is found. Now he is a hunted man, but by whom?

The characters are smart, talented and vulnerable. The writing is stellar. The pace is relentless. And unlike some, I found the narration top notch.

Be prepared to stay up late! This is a great listening experience.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

90 people found this helpful

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

One Of The Best

No flowery words sprinkled throughout endless pages or irritatingly sophomoric subplots to yawn by. Just a bare-bones writing technique by a terrific author plus superb narration combined to reveal one of the best action mysteries you'll ever come across and which will end long before you'll want it to.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

65 people found this helpful

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

Good not Great

After reading the reviews I expected a Great story and narration, I got good. The story certainly added new twists to the old story where an old employer goes after a former employee but sometimes it seemed like the old man was too perfect. Maybe not enough tension. The action scenes are quick and don't dominate the novel which is ok ... the characters are a bit superficial, we know things about them but we don't necessarily know them. This is a good story just not great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

62 people found this helpful

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

The narration was really distracting

This was my first Tom Perry book and unfortunately, because of the narrator, this will also be my last. I couldn't tell if the book was poor quality or if I was just completely annoyed and distracted by the narrator who makes each character sound like a sinister Lego Batman.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

54 people found this helpful

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

Did Perry really write this?

I've enjoyed so many of Perry's creations over the years, in the Butcher's Boy and Jane Whitefield series, and others, and have always given 4 or 5 stars. In this case, I agree with other reviewers who found it off-putting that the narrator made so many characters sound so creepy, but in addition, I was annoyed with the rendering of female voices. Most of us don't whisper or hum in bedroom voices all the time, and I think that male narrators who can't do female voices should probably just speak in normal tones. It would be less distracting and annoying.

Beyond that, here's more on my unfulfilled expectations. I noticed that Perry is getting up there in years (though he'll never catch up with me) so I was hoping he'd be moving into the geezer lit genre. Those that I enjoy, however, are either really humorous or really technically detailed enough to teach me something. The technical info in this book was poorly researched and sloppy, but that wasn't directed toward making the story humorous, as it well could have been. So I guess the target audience would be chauvinistic retired males who have more time and money than they know what to do with, so they spend their time fantasizing about being the hero in implausible covert operations scenarios. Lovely for them, but I would have hoped Perry would at least include a strong appropriately aged female character with a mind of her own. Pretty young things who just follow the rich old guy around and do what he says are really only baggage, and don't contribute anything to the story. The female's motivation for doing so seemed fabricated after the fact.

I think Perry can do better, and hope he will next time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

50 people found this helpful

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

Worth the credit, for sure

This book falls into the category of "I enjoyed it while listening, but not much stick with me." Can't really criticize much, except perhaps the loose ends. I would have liked a little more about Julian at the end, as well as Zoey. I guess the reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that the ending seemed to just come. It was almost as if Perry said, "I need to wrap this one up." Don't get me wrong, the plot was resolved, just not at the same level of finesse.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

29 people found this helpful