Pursuit: A Novel

By: Thomas Perry

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

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)

Page turner

If you don't like this book you need to stop reading murder mysteries and maybe avoid fiction in general.

Classic Perry

Goes a mile a minute with the usual nuance between good guys and bad. Excellent narration by Tom Weiner that suits the story to a T.

One of my favorite Thomas Perry stories.

Amazing story. Flawless performance. On the edge of my seat from page one to the end! Thomas perry classic.

Not Perry’s Best

I am a big fan of Thomas Perry, and have listened to a 9 of his books. They all are intricately plotted procedurals, covering the range of criminal behaviors, with an emphasis on professional killers. This story involves such a killer, being hunted by another professional, hired by the father of one of the killer’s victims. The story ranges all over the U.S., and includes a lot of action, but it loses its way about 2/3 of the way through, and becomes tedious. Well narrated.

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:-)

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.

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.

Human nature at its worst

Perry is dependably observant and gimlet eyed in focusing on human frailties, and I always enjoy his novels. Like this one, they usually involve a cross country pursuit. This focuses more on the pursuer than the pursued. The contract killer being pursued is a huge menace, but the pursuer is not all that much better. Well read. Fans of Perry will find this up to the mark. I bought and read it five or six years ago and just listened again as diversion from the coronavirus.

Another good book

This will be a short review but I like all of Perry's books and thought I should say so. He has a way of telling a story and making it interesting. I like first person narratives ie; I felt this, not he felt this. Perry has a lot of this in his books. This is a good murder mystery without much mystery, but a lot of suspense. I got a bit angry that the murderer got away so many times to commit more murders when he was cornered and given too many chances. It did hold my attention though and I give it four stars.

O'Cknnell's best work and bezt hidden secret

A murder, a small town full of mystery and secrets, a romance and the quirkiezt characters you could find.